Some records of the Dyer family

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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

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SOME RECORDS

OF THE

DYER FAMILY

Compiled bt

COENELIA C. JOY-DYER

"Rememherthedaysofold, consider the years of many generations :
ask thy father, and he will shew thee ; thy elders, and they loill tell
thee. — Deuteronomy xxxii. 7.

" / have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times.'" —
Psalm Ixxvii. 5.

PRINTED FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION

NEW YORK
THOMAS WHITTAKER

2 AND 3 Bible House

1884

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J To THE

REV. Heman Dyer, D.D.

This History of his Ancestors

IS affectionately inscribed

BY his Wife

PREFACE.

The following pages have not been hastily written,
but are the result of much patient, and thoughtful re-
search. Great care has been taken that no statement
^, should be made, without ample proof of its correctness.
0^ Numerous books, and musty records, have been consult-
ed, and the most persevering, and untiring efforts made,
^ to reach the truth. If mistakes can be found, it is be-
^^ lieved that they are but slight ones. It may be thought
^' that some matters have been introduced, which are
foreign to the subject; but in each instance, there has
been a motive for doing so. There has been no at-
tempt to trace the lineage of the various branches of
the Dyer family. The object of the writer was to find
the link between the noble-hearted martyr, Mary Dyre
— her brave husband — and that branch of their
descendants for which she has a particular regard.
It is believed that much of interest will be found, in the
book, to any bearing the name, and certainly all are

6 PREFACE.

justified in feeling both pride and pleasure, who can
trace their lineage back to that remarkable band of
Exiles, who left their native land for conscience' sake,
came to this wilderness, and, after years of trial, toil,
and embarrassment, most cheerfully and nobly borne,
laid the foundation for the rich inheritance we now en-
joy. Such an ancestry is indeed a " precious heritage."

" Yet, remember! 'tis a crown
That can hardly be thine own,
Till thou win it by some deed
That with glory fresh shall feed
Their renown!"

Cornelia C. Joy-Dyer.

New Yokk, March, 1884.

->

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

Fifteen years after the Pilgrims of the Mayflower
had landed on Plymouth Rock, we find the first record
of William and Mary Dyre, in Boston. A family
tradition says that two brothers and a sister — Edward,
George, and Tabitha Dyre — came from England to
Boston in the Mayflower, about 1627 or 1629. With
them, were the son of one brother and the daughter of
the other — William and Mary. The cousins married;
when^ it is not known. As it has been impossible to
ascertain any other maiden name for Mary Dyre, the
inference is that the tradition may be a correct one.
Gerard Croese in his "History of the Quakers,"
quaintly describes her as " a person of no mean extract
or parentage, of an estate pretty plentiful, of a comely
stature and countenance, of a piercing knowledge in
many things, of a wonderful sweet and pleasant dis-
course." Governor John Winthrop, in his Journal
dated 1638, speaks of her as " a very promp, and fair
woman, of a very proud spirit." " Thus," says Drake
in his " New England Legends," " we have, in her.

8 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

the portrait of a comely woman of fine presence, high
spirit, a fair share of education, and possessing, more-
over, a soul endowed with the purpose of an evangelist,
or, at need, a martyr." The Dyre family, like many
others in that day, had left the refinements of an
English home, and braved the discomforts of the western
wilderness, in order to enjoy the blessings of religious
liberty. William and Mary Dyre united with the
church of which the Rev. Mr. Wilson, (afterwards so
malignant in his persecution of the Quakers) was the
pastor, and on the 20th of December, 1635, their son
Samuel was baptized. The following March, William
Dyre was made freeman. As this act gave him the
elective franchise, and was not bestowed without a cer-
tain amount of property, it is probable that he was a
man of some means, when this privilege was conferred
upon him. The name Dyre has, like many names in
this country, been spelled in various ways by different
branches of the family. We find it thus written —
Dier, Dhier, Dyor, Dyar, Dyre and Dyer, — the last
being the spelling by which the name is now known,
both in England and America. William, of Boston,
wrote his name Dyre, as his ancestors had done for
many years, and thus it continued for several genera-
tions in this country. In Anglo-Saxon the adjective
dyre means " strong — bold." In the days of Chaucer,
dyre meant " dear," and he says :

" Farewelle, dyre herte, chef yn remembraunce,
And ever schalle unto the oure y dy."

It is not known how much the ancestors of William

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 9

Dyre were governed by these considerations in spelling
their names, but the Anglo-Saxon meaning probably
had its influence. About the time that the Dvre
family came among the Puritans of New England,
Roger Williams, originally from Wales, and a graduate
of Pembroke College, Cambridge, then a young man
of thirty-two years of age, had made his appearance,
and taken a decided stand against many of the views of
the founders of Massachusetts, who came to secure
freedom for the exercise of their own religious opinions,
but were zealous in putting down all those who differed
from them. He believed in religious freedom, not
only for his own opinions, but for those of all others.
He thought that the law ought to be used to keep
people from crime, but that it had nothing to do with
their religious belief. He did not approve of obliging
people to attend church, unless they wished to do it.
He did not think it right to choose the magistrates
from the church members only, or to make people pay
to support the cliurch unless they wished. There were
many who shared these views, but had not the courage
to avow them, knowing it might bring them into
serious difficulties. Petitions, however, were gotten up,
protesting against these requirements, and agents were
sent about to get signers. They soon got into trouble,
and one incident will show how bitter was the feeling
against them. My ancestor, Thomas Joy, in an unwary
moment, was persuaded to carry a petition for signa-
tures. John Winthrop, Esq., first Governor of the
colony of Massachusetts Bay, makes this record in his

10 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

Journal : " There was, also, one Thomas Joy, a young
fellow, whom they had employed to get hands for the
petition. He began to be very busy, but was laid hold
on and kept in irons about four or five days, and then
he humbled himself, confessed what he knew, and
blamed himself for meddling in matters belonging not
to him, and blessed God for these irons upon his legs,
hoping they would do him good., while he lived ! So he
was let out upon reasonable bail."

A novel way of taking iron as a tonic !

Roger Williams talked so boldly against the es-
tablished laws, that the Massachusetts magistrates de-
cided to send him back to England. He heard of this
intention and fled, in mid winter, from his home in
Salem, and wandered in the wilderness for fourteen
weeks, "sorely tost in a bitter season," he says, "not
knowing what bread or bed did mean."

This was in January, 1636. It has been shrewdly
said that, " when the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth
Rock they fell upon their knees, and shortly after, fell
upon the aborigines." Roger Williams, however,
pursued a different course. He sought the friendship
of the Indians, and by kindness and attention, making
them presents, and visiting them, as his letters de-
scribe, " in their filthy, smoky holes, to gain their
tongue," he overcame the shyness of old Canonicus,
and won the esteem of the high-spirited Miantinomo.
It proved well for himself, and for New England,
that this intercourse was maintained. He crossed the
Narragansett Bay, with five companions, in an Indian

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 11

canoe, and the first place where he landed, he called
Providence, thus acknowledghig his gratitude to God.
There were no white settlers in that region ; and
Canonicus and Miantinomo were sachems over the
Narrasan setts, and resided on the island of Canonicut
in the Narragansett Bay. It was from them that Mr.
Williams obtained his first deed of the lands about
Providence. This deed bears date March 24, 1637,
and it mentions a sale of lands to him, and a large
tract of country, which, " in consideration of the
many kindnesses and services he hath continually done
for us, we doe freely give unto him." " It was not
price and money," says Roger Williams, " that could
have purchased Rhode Island, but it was obtained by
love." But he kept nothing himself ; he gave away
his lands to those he thought most in want, and only
desired that a shelter might be found for " persons
distressed for conscience." Many such came in proc-
ess of time ; for the " Antinomian controversy," as
it was called, had caused great disturbance in Boston.
The leaders of it, the Rev. John Wheelwright, and
his sister-in-law, Mrs. Ann Hutchinson, promulgated
their views so freely that they were banished from the
colony — the former going to the head-waters of the
Piscataqua, and the latter following Roger Williams.

Williarti Dyre had not remained a silent spectator
in all this controversy. He warmly espoused the
cause of Wheelwright; and to use his own words,
" because his hand was to the seditious writing and
defended the sanu,^'' he was disfranchised and dis-

12 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

armed, and finally was driven out of Massachusetts
Colony, to the new settlement formed by Roger
Williams. Mary Dyre had taken a prominent part in
the Antinomian controversy, whilst her force of
character, and vigorous understanding, no doubt,
caused her to be regarded as a formidable opponent
by the orthodox Puritans. When Mrs. Hutchinson
was cast out of the church, young Mrs. Dyre walked
out with her, in presence of the whole congregation.
A fact recorded by Governor Winthrop.

The brave woman, even then, was not afraid to
" show her colors."

Soon after reaching their new home, William
Dyre joined seventeen others, and they bought
the island of Rhode Island, then called Aquid-
neck, or the " Isle of Peace," — a name which should
have been retained, but Governor Coddington
thought otherwise, and, from a fancied resemblance to
the Isle of Rhodes in the Mediterranean Sea, he
changed the name, and it soon became known as
Rhode Island. Pocasset was the Indian name of the
place where the first English settlement upon Aquid-
neck was established. Ten coats, and twenty hoes,
were given to the resident Indians to vacate the lands,
and five fathoms of wampum were paid to the local
sachem. Before leaving Providence, this civil com-
pact was drawn up and signed :

" 7th day of the 1st month (IVIarch), 1638.

"We, whose names are underwritten, do hereby
solemnly, in the presence of Jehovah, incorporate our-

SOME RECOKDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 13

selves into a body politic ; and as he shall help, will
submit our persons, lives, and estates unto our Lord
Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords,
and to all those perfect and most absolute laws of His,
given us in His holy word of truth, to be guided and
judged thereby.

" Exodus, xxiv. 3, 4. II. Ohron. xi. 3. II. Kings,
xi. 17."

Its signers were William Coddington, John Clarke,
William Hutchinson, John Coggeshall, Wm. Aspin-
wall, Samuel Wilbore, John Porter, John San ford,
Edward Hutchinson, Jr., Thomas Savage, William
Dyre, William Freeborne, Philip Shearman, John
Walker, Richard Carder, Wm. Baulstone, Edward
Hutchinson, Sr., Henry Bull. The names of Roger
Williams and Randall Holden appear as witnesses.
On that day, William Dyre was chosen the first clerk
of the colony. He was also chosen clerk when New-
port was settled in 1639. Upon consolidation of the
towns into "Providence Plantation in Narragansett
Bay in New England " in 1647, he was General Re-
corder ; in 1648, he was Clerk of Assembly ; and in
1650, Attorney-General. These ofiicial positions show
the high estimation in which he was evidently held.
A year after the settlement at Pocasset, the colony had
increased so greatly, that a division was deemed expe-
dient. A meeting was held, at which the following
agreement was entered into by the signers, by whom
the settlement of Newport was commenced on the
southwest side^of the island :

14 SOME KECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

" Pocasset on the 28th of the 2d, 1639.

" It is agreed by us, whose hands are underwritten,
to propagate a plantation in the midst of the island
or elsewhere ; and doe engage ourselves to bear
equall charges, answerable to our strength and estates
in common ; and that our determination shall be by
major voice of judge and elders, the judge to have a
double voice."

Present :

William Coddington, Judge.

Nicholas Gaston, John Coggeshall, Wm. Breton,
John Clarke, Jeremy Gierke, Thomas Hazard, Henry
Bull, Elders.

William Dyre, Clerk.

In " Extracts from Rhode Island Colonial Records,
papers never before published, relating to the original
grant of lands to the early settlers of Newport, R. I.,"
it is stated that " William Dyre having exhibited his
bill under the Treasurer's hand unto the sessions held
on the 10th of March, 1640, wherein appears full sat-
isfaction to be given for seventy-five acres of land,
lying within the precincts of such bounds, as by the
committee, by order appointed, did bound it withal,
viz.: To begin at the river's mouth, over against
Coaster's Harbour, and so by the sea, to run up to a
marked stake, at Mr. Coddington's corner, and so
down, upon an easterly line to a marked tree over
against the Great Swamp, and so two rods within the
swamp, at the two deepest corners of the clear land,
the one at the southeast corner, and the other upon a

SOME BECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 15

straight line in the northeast, marked by stakes, and so
down to a marked tree by the river side ; the river
being his bounds to the mouth thereof. v,^ith a home
lot and a parcel of meadow and upland lying between
Mr. Jeremy Clarke's meadow, and Mr. Jeoffrey's at
the north end of the harbour, and north upon the
highway, with ten acres allowed by the town order for
his travelling about the island, lying within the for-
mer bounds, which is his proportion.

"This, therefore, doth evidence and testify, that all
those parcels of land before specified, amounting to
the number of eighty-seven acres, more or less, is fully
impropriated to said William Dyre and his heirs for
ever."

This land is beautifully situated on Narragansett Bay,
opposite Coaster's Island, and is at the extreme end of
what is called " Old Newport." When I visited the
place in September, 1883, I found an old family burial
ground of the Dyres, which is protected by a high,
strong fence, and is literally " impropriated to the heirs
of William Dyre, foreve7\''^ It was very touching to
look upon this " God's acre," the only relic left to show
who were the proprietors of that lovely spot, more than
two centuries ago.

With Longfellow,

" I like that ancient Saxon phrase which calls
The burial ground God's acre! It is just.
It consecrates each grave within its walls,
And breathes a benison o'er the sleeping dust."

16 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

Many of the inscriptions on the tombstones are leg-
ible, but undoubtedly, many stones liave been broken,
and destroyed, by the ravages of time. It is probable,
also, that there were some interments, with no stones to
mark the last resting place of those who were buried
there. The oldest stone legible is that of Desire Dyre,
1707, and the last interment was that of Wm. Dyre of
South Kingstown, September, 1797, aged 91 years. Be-
sides this estate and some other lands, William Dyre
of Newport, owned an island in Narragansett Bay con-
taining 600 acres which was called " Dyre's Island," and
still bears his name. On the 5th August, 1670, he gave
it to his son William. After the settlement of Rhode
Island, many people of various opinions went there,
and it used to be said that any man who had lost his
religion would be sure to find it again, at some village
in Khode Island ! " The laws of the colony were based
on the plan of perfect religious toleration, and good
Roger Williams would not permit any thing else. In
the mean time, there were various organizations for the
protection of the laws. A formal act of the whole peo-
ple passed at this time, will set their regard for justice
and their care in providing for its administration, in
still clearer light.

" By the Body Politicke in the Isle of Aquitteneck,
inhabiting this present 25th of 9th month, 1639.

" In the fourteenth yeare of y' Raign of our Soveraign
Lord, King Charles. It is agreed, that as natural sub-
jects to our Prince, and subject to his Lawes, all matters
that concerne the Peace shall be by those that are officers

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 17

of the Peace transacted ; And all actions of the case, on
Debt, shall be in such Courts as by order are here ap-
pointed and, by such Judges as are deputed, heard and
legally determined.

"Given at Niew-Port on the Quarter Courte day
which was adjourned till y' day.

" William T>yre^ Secretary."

At the first General Court of Election ever held in
Newport, in 1640, various officers were elected; among
them, William Coddington Governor, William Dyre
Secretary.

The first General Assembly met at Portsmouth, 1647,
when William Dyre was chosen Eecorder. They agreed
upon a body of laws, chiefly taken from the laws of
England, with the addition of a few suited to their par-
ticular circumstances. The code, which contains noth-
ing except civil regulations, concludes thus : " Other-
wise than thus, what is hei-ein forbidden, all men may
walk as their consciences persuade them, every one in
the name of his God. And let the lambs of the Most
High walk, in this colony, without molestation, in the
name of Jehovah, their God, for ever and ever."

Governor Coddington, it is said, was "among the most
turbulent spirits." He was strongly attached to the
King's party, against that of the Protector, and main-
tained that his authority was paramount in the govern-
ment of the colony. In 1649, Coddington went to Eng-
land, and found King Charles already beheaded, and the
Commonwealth declared. He obtained a hearing of the
2

18 SOME RECOKDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

Council, and received a commission to govern the island
of Rliode Island, and Canoniciit, during his life, with
a council of six men, to be named by the people and
approved by himself. The alarm felt throughout the
colony was great, and preparations were immediately
made to send delegates to England, to obtain a revoca-
tion of Coddington's power. John Clarke, Roger Will-
iams, and William Dyre were sent, and accomplished
their important errand. An order of council was is-
sued, vacating the commission of Coddington, and
ordering the towns again to unite under the charter.
The mission was successful, at every point. Two of
the agents remained in England, on their private bus-
iness, and also to sustain the rights of the colony, while
Williaon Dyre returned home with the joyful news,
leaving his wife, who had accompanied him, in England.
This was in 1652. Some time afterward, when Cod-
dington was elected Commissioner, and there was great
dissatisfaction, ha was compelled to submit to the au-
thority of the colony in these words : " I, William Cod-
dington, do hereby submit to y® authoritie of His High-
ness in this Colonic, as it is now" united, and that, with
all my heart." In 1653, active measures were taken
against the Dutch, who were sending exploring parties,
and making claims along Long Island Sound. William
Dyre received a commission to act against the enemy,
and for a time commanded a privateer. The commis-
sion " constituted Captain John Underhill Commander-
in-Chief upon the land, and Captain William Dyre
Commander-in-Chief at sea; 3'et '"to join in counsel,

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 19

to be assistant each to the other, for the propagating of
the service promised." How much maritime skill
William Djre possessed has not come down to us, but
he seems to have been ready for any emergency. His
dislike of Coddington continued all these years, and
there seemed little probability of any harmony between
them. In an article on " Highways," from the Colonial
Land Evidence, he speaks of a " highway from the town,
laid out, of two poles wide, to William Dyre's farm, and
so to lead to the lauds on the north side of the town,
viz.: the meadows, Mr. Coddington's cow pasture, the
Artillery garden, etc." He significantly adds, " Thus
much I have said and do affirm to the best of my un-
derstanding and knowledge, in the common good,
wherein all men have right, and if any one is impeached
the whole is wronged (as to concerning highways
through which all have propriety of free egress). And
because this particular doth emearge to that which is
committed to our care, I do declare, in my observation,
two or three impediments : First, Mr. Coddington, in
that highway that goes to the Artillery garden and
burying place, he hath set near sixty poles of fencing
upon the highway, six feet at least, at the north end.
Let them, therefore, that know any injury in this
kind, put it down, under their hands, as I now have
done, and be ready to make it good, as I am, so
shall we avoid hypocrisy, dissimulation, back-bitting,
and secret wolveish devourings, one of another,
and declare ourselves men, which, how unmanlike
the practice of some sycovents are, is and may safely

20 SOME KECORDS OF THE PTER FAMILY.

be demonstrated : Therefore, let all that love the
light come forth to the light and show their deeds.
So saith William Dyre. This as a record, I give forth
to be a record, from the simple and honest intent of ray
heart and soul, this 15th February, 1654."

Certainly no one can accuse William Dyre of a want
of frankness, and he seems always to have been most
honorable in his intention, and just in his dealings. His
dislike of Governor Coddington was always ready to
manifest itself. This dislike was shared by many others,
and a letter was addressed to Oliver Cromwell, setting
forth the complaints of the colonists, to which he replied
by letter March 29th, 1655, telling them that they were
to " proceed in their government according to the tenor
of their charter, taking care of the peace and safety of
those plantations, that neither through any intestine
commotions, or foreign invasions, there do arise any
detriment or dishonor to this commonwealth." He
adds, "And so we bid you farewell, and rest your loving
friend, Oliver, P."

As their " loving friend " did not long remain Protec-
tor, a very liberal charter was granted by King Charles
II., July 8, 1663, and remained in force for many
years. In 1664, the royal commissioners having
nearly completed the subjugation of the Dutch provin-
ces, had their headquarters on board the English fleet
lying in the harbor of New York. A delegation, con-
sisting of John Clarke, who had lately returned home,
Captain John Cranston, and Wm. Byre, was sent on
with a letter from the authorities of Ehode Island, ex-

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 21

pressing the gratitude of the colony to his Majesty for
the charter, and congratulating the commissioners. It
is pleasant to know that, after various litigations with
Coddington for many years, William Dyre and he
were formally reconciled to each other May 14, 1656.

But a great sorrow was in store for William Dyre.
"When he left England in 1652, his wife remained
there with her relatives. One can imagine her delight
in seeing once more the beautiful land of her birth,
after all the hardships of this western wilderness. Dur-
ing her visit of five years in Great Britain, Mary
Dyre became a Friend, and was a minister of that
society, at the time of her return to the forbidden
port of Boston. The year 1656 will be darkly mem-
orable in the annals of New England, for the arrival
of the Quakers, and the commencement of their per-
secution in Boston. The appearance of this "cursed
sect of heretics," as they were called, so alarmed the
Puritans, that a day of public humiliation was ap-
pointed to be held in all the churches, mainly on tlieir
account. A stringent law was enacted for their sup-
pression, and two years later, their tenets were made
a capital offence. Fines, imprisonment, whipi)ing,
banishment, mutilation, and death, were inflicted upon
them.

The wildest fanaticism on the part of the Quakers
was met by frenzied bigotry on the part of the
Puritans. Such was the most miserable state of affairs,
when Mary Dyre, in 1657, returned to the land of
her adoption. She had no knowledge of what liad

22 SOME EECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

been done in Massachusetts, but was at once seized,
and cast into prison.

When her husband (who had not adopted the faith
of tlie Friends) heard of her imprisonment, he came
from Rhode Island, and succeeded in obtaining her re-
lease, and leave to take her home, after becoming
" bound in a great penalty not to lodge her in any
town of the colony, nor to permit any to have speech
with her on the journey."

What a meeting for the long-parted husband and
wife, and how humiliating such a concession ! Mary
Dyre spent some time in her Newport home, and then
ventured again into Massachusetts, to carry comfort
and cheer, to her captiv^e fellow-believers there, feeling
that she went in obedience to the divine call. She
was again imprisoned, and at her arraignment before
Governor Endicott she "gave no other answer but
that she denied our law, and came to bear witness
against it, and could not choose but come."

One cannot but think, in this connection, of the
often quoted saying of grand old Martin Luther,
when he made his defence at the Diet of Worms.
"Here standi. lean do no otherwise. God help
me !" As Marj^ Dj^re's brave determination could not
be conquered, Governor Endicott pronounced the sen-
tence of death upon her.

" After Mary Dyer had heard her sentence, she only
replied by the significant words, ' The will of the Lord
be done.' And when Endicott impatiently exclaimed,
' Take her away, marshal,' she added, ' Yea, joyfully I

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 23

go ; ' for her heart was filled witli heavenly consolation
from the love of Christ, and from the thought that she
was counted worthy to suffer for His sake. She told
the marshal that it was unnecessarv for him to ofuard
her to the prison. 'I believe you, Mrs. Dyre,' he
answered, * but I must do as I am commanded.'
From her prison she addressed an ' Appeal to the
Kulers of Boston,' in which she asks nothing for
herself, but manifests the courage of an apostle
contending for the truth, and the tenderness of a
woman, feeling for the sufferings of her people. Her
appeal is pervaded throughout, by a simple and
touching dignity. She writes : ' "Whereas, I am
by many charged with the guiltiness of my own
blood ; if you mean in my coming to Boston, I am
therein clear and justified by the Lord, in whose
will I came, who will require my blood of you,
be sure, who have made a law to take away the lives
of the innocent servants of God, if thev come amonor
you, who are called by you cursed Quakers ; although
I say I am a living witness for them and the Lord,
that he hath blessed them, and sent them unto you :
therefore, be not found fisjliters ao-ainst God, but let
my counsel and request be accepted with you to repeal
all such laws, that the truth and servants of the Lord
may have free passage among you, and you be kept
from shedding innocent blood, which I know there are
many among you would not do, if they knew it so to
be. I have no self ends, the Lord knoweth : for if my
life were freely granted by you it would not avail me.

24 SOME KECOEDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

nor could I expect it of you, so long as I should daily
hear or see the sufferings of these people, my dear
brethren, with whom my life is bound up, as I have
done these two years ; and now it is like to increase,
even unto death, for no evil doing but coming among
you. Was ever the like laws heard of among a peo-
ple that profess Christ come in the flesh ? And
have such no other weapons but such laws to fight
against spiritual wickedness, withal, as you call it ?
Woe is me for you ! I leave these lines with you,
appealing to the faithful and true witness of God,
which is one in all consciences, before whom we must
all appear — with whom I shall eternally rest in ever-
lasting joy and peace, whether you will hear or forbear.
With Him is my reward, with whom to live is my joy,
and to die is my gain, though I had not had your
forty-eight hours' warning for the preparation of the
death of Maiy Dyre. Oh, let none of you put this
good day far from you, which verily, in the light of
the Lord, I see approaching, even to many in and
about Boston, which is the bitterest and darkest pro-
fessing place, and so to continue so long as you have
done, that ever I heard of. Let the time past, there-
fore, suffice for such a profession as brings forth such
fruits as these laws are. In love and in the spirit of
meekness, I again beseech you, for I have no enmity
to the persons of any ; but you shall know that God
will not be mocked ; but what ye sow, that shall ye
reap for Him, that will render to every one according
to the deeds done in the body, whether good or evil.
Even so be it, saith Mary Dyre.' "

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 25

It is said that on the day preceding that appointed
for the execution, Mary Dyre's eldest son (Samuel) ar-
rived in Boston, and was allowed to remain all night
with his mother ; he came in the vain hope of inducing
her to make such concessions as might be the means
of saving her life. Boston Common was separated by
the distance of a mile from the jail, and the pris-
oners were escorted bv two hundred men, armed with
halberds, guns, swords, and pikes, in addition to many
horsemen. The drummers were ordered to walk im-
mediately before the captives, and to beat more loudly,
if they should attempt to speak. William Robinson
and Marmaduke Stevenson, who had experienced the
blessedness of living under a higher and holier law than
any mere human authority, felt that the Lord still had
need of them to testify for him in this colony, and had
remained there, at the peril of their lives. They also
were condemned to death, and went with Mary Dyre
to the scaffold, "with great cheerfulness," saying '"We
suffer not as evil-doers, but as those who have testilied
and manifested the truth.'' From " A History of the
Christian People called Quakers," by William Sewel, I
quote the conclusion of this terrible tragedy. " Mary
Dyre, seeing her companions hanging dead before her,
also stepped up the ladder ; but, after her dress was
tied about her feet, the noose put about her neck, and
her face covered with a handkerchief, which the priest
Wilson lent the hangman, just as she was about to be
executed, a cry was heard : ' Stop ! she is reprieved I '
Her feet then being loosed, they bade her come down.

26 SOME EECOEDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

But she, whose mind was already, as it were, in Heaven,
stood still, and said she was then willing to suffer as
her brethren did, unless they would annul their wicked
law. Little heed was given to what she said ; but they
took her down, and the mai'shal and others, taking her
by the arms, carried her to prison again. That she was
freed from the gallows, this time, was at the interces-
sion of her son, to whojn, it seems, they could not then
resolve to deny that favor. She, now having heard
why she was reprieved, wrote the next day, being the
28th of October, 1659, the following letter to the Court :

" ' Once more to the General Court assembled in Bos-
ton, speaks Mary Dyre, even as before. My life is not
accepted, neither availeth me, in comparison of the
lives, and liberty of the truth, and servants of the living
God, for which, in the bowels of love and meekness, I
sought you; yet nevertheless, with wicked hands,
have you put two of them to death, which makes me
to feel that the mercy of the wicked is cruelty. I rather
choose to die than to live, as from you, as guilty of their
innocent blood ; therefore, seeing my request is hin-
dered, I leave you to the righteous Judge and Searcher
of all hearts, who, with the pure measure of light He
hath given to every man to profit withal, will, in his
due time, let you see whose servants you are, and of
whom you have taken counsel, which I desire you to
search into, but all his counsel hath been slighted, and
you would none of his reproofs. Read your portion :
Proverbs, i. 24 to 32.

'' ' "When I heard your last order read, it was a disturb-

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 27

ance unto me that was so freely offering up my life to
Him tliat gave it to me, and sent me hither so to do,
which obedience he gloriously accompanied with his
presence, and peace and love in me, in which I rested
from my labors till, by your order and the people. I
was so far disturl^ed that I could not retain any more
of the words thereof, than that I should return to
prison and there remain forty and eight hours ; to which
I submitted, finding nothing from the Lord to the con-
trary, that I may know what His pleasure and counsel
is concerning me, on whom I wait therefore, for he is
my life and the length of my days ; and, as I said be-
fore, I came at His command, and go at His command.

" 'Mary Dyre.'

"The magistrates, now perceiving that the putting
"William R,ol)inson and Marmaduke Stevenson to death
caused great discontent among the people, resolved to
send away Mary Dyre, thereby to calm their minds a
little. And so she was put on horseback, and by four
horsemen conveyed fifteen miles towards Rhode Island,
where she was left with a horse, and a man, to be con-
veyed the rest of the way ; which she soon sent back,
and so repaired home. By the style of her letters and
her undaunted carriage, it appears that she had indeed
many extraordinary qualities. She was also of a comely
and grave countenance, of a good family and estate,
and a mother of several children ; but her husl)and, it
seems, was of another persuasion.

"After her return to Rhode Island, she went from

28 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

thence to Long Island, where she spent the most part
of the winter, and then, coming home again, she was
moved to return to that bloody town of Boston, whither
she came on the 21st of the third month, 1660, and on
the 31st she was sent for by the General Court. Being
come, the Governor, John Endicott, said : ' Are you the
same Mary Dyre that was here before ? ' And it seems
he was preparing an evasion for her, as she might
easily have replied 'No.' But she was so far from
disguising, that she answered, undauntedly : ' I am the
same Mary Dyre that was here at the last General
Court.' Then Endicott said : ' You will own yourself
a Quaker, will you not ? ' To which Mary Dyre said,
'I own myself to be reproachfully called so.' And
Endicott said the sentence was passed upon her at the
last General Court, and now, likewise. ' You must re-
turn to the prison, and there remain till to-morrow, at
nine o'clock ; then from thence you must go to the
gallows, and there be hanged till you are dead.' To
which Mary Dyre said : ' This is no more than what
thou saidst before.' And Endicott returned : ' But
now it is to be executed ; therefore, prepare yourself ;
to-morrow, at nine o'clock.' She then spoke thus : ' I
came in obedience to the will of God, the last General
Court, desiring you to repeal your unrighteous laws of
banishment on pain of death ; and that same is my
work now, and earnest request ; although I told you
that, if you refused to repeal them, the Lord would send
others of his servants to witness against them.' Where-
upon Endicott asked her if she was a prophetess? And

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 29

she answered that she spoke the words that the Lord
spoke in her, and now the thing was come to pass. And
beginning to speak of her call, Endicott cried, ' Away
with her ! away with her ! ' So she was brought to the
prison-house where she was before, and kept close shut
up until the next day. About the appointed time the
marshal, Michaelson, came, and called her to come
hastily ; and coming into the room where she was, she
desired him to 'stay a little;' and, speaking mildly,
said she ' should be ready presentl3\' But he, being
of a rough temper, said he ' could not wait upon her,
but she should now wait upon him.' One Margaret
Smith, her companion, being grieved to see such hard-
heartedness, spoke something against their unjust laws
and proceedings. To which he said, ' You shall have
your share of the same.' Then Mary Dyre was brought
forth, and, with a band of soldiers, led through the
town, the drums being beaten before and behind her,
and so continued, that none might hear her speak all
the way to the place of execution, which was about a
mile. With this guard she came to the gallows, and,
being gone up the ladder, some said to her that, if she
would return, she might come down and save her life.
To which she replied, ' Nay, I cannot ; for, in ol^edieuce
to the will of the Lord I came, and in His will I abide,
faithful to the death.' Then Captain John "Webb said,
that she had been there before, and had the sentence of
banishment upon pain of death, and broken the law in
coming again now, and therefore she was guilty of her
own blood. To which she returned : ' Nay, I came to

30 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

keep blood-guiltiness from you, desiring you to repeal
the unrighteous and unjust law of banishment upon
pain of death made against the innocent servants of the
Lord ; therefore, my blood will be required at your
hands, who wilfully do it. But for those that do it in
the simplicity of their hearts, I desire the Lord to for-
give them. I came to do the will of my Father, and
in obedience to His will I stand, even to death.' The
priest, Wilson, said : ' Mary Dyre, O repent ! O repent !
and be not so deluded and carried away by the deceit
of the devil.' To this Mary Dyre answered : ' Nay,
man, I am not now to repent.' And being asked by some,
whether she would have the elders pray for her, she said :
'I know never an elder here.' Being farther asked
whether she would have any of the people to pray for
her, she answered that she desired the prayers of all
the people of God. When accused of having said she
had been in Paradise, she replied without hesitation :
' Yea, I have been in Paradise these several days. This
is to me an hour of the greatest joy I ever had in this
world. No ear can hear, no tongue can utter, no heart
can understand the sweet incomes and the refreshings
of the Spirit of the Lord which I now feel ! ' In this
frame of mind, this honest, valiant woman died, — a
martyr to her faith."

A Friend who had united in her ministerial services
on Shelter Island, sums up his description of her, by
saying: "She even shined in the image of God."
There will always be a difference of opinion as to the
course she pursued ; but no one can question her won-

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 31

derful bravery, and certainly, not many can now be
found, who would have the courage to imitate it. The
raotto of one branch of the Dyer family, " Terrere nolo,
timere nescio" (To affright, I would not — to fear, I
know not), seems to have been applicable in her case.
A strong sense of duty, and an intense hatred of wrong,
influenced her actions ; and while we may, perhaps, feel
that it was a mistaken duty, we cannot but admire and
reverence the real nobleness, and grandeur, of her char-
acter. The " Divine immanence," of which our Quaker
poet, John G. Whittier, speaks, seems to have lifted her
above all the sufferings of earth, and given her a faith
which nothing could weaken — a courage which never
faltered.

Edward Wanton, a member of one of the most dis-
tinguished families of Ehode Island, and the first of
the name in America, was an officer of the guard, when
Mary Dyre suffered death. The unshaken firmness
with which she submitted to her fate moved Wanton,
greatly. " Alas, mother ! " said he, as he went into his
house after the execution, " we have been murdering
the Lord's people ;" and taking off his sword, he made a
solemn vow never to wear it again. Kot long after-
ward, he became a member of the society of Friends.
Amelia Opie, in her excellent work entitled " Illustra-
tions of Lying," mentions Mary Dyre as one of the in-
stances of those M'hom even the fear of death has not
been able to terrify into falsehood, because they were
supported in their integrity by the fear of God.

As William Dyre had not adopted the tenets of the

32 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

Friends, it could hardly have been possible for him to
sympathize in the views of his wife ; and no doubt, her
course did not always meet with his approval. He
wrote many pathetic letters to Governor Endicott,
sometimes " blaming her," but speaking of her as his
" dear wife." She spent much time away from home,
in ministering to the comfort of those who needed her
aid. It has been said that " no Puritanical power, no
human hand, was strong enough to suppress the heav-
en-implanted and divinely directed zeal of the Friends
to share their spiritual treasure with others." A few
days before Mary Dyre's death, her husband in great
anguish of mind, he being wholly ignorant that she
-meditated this fatal step, wrote to the General Court of
Massachusetts, once more imploring its clemency.
His entreaties would have moved a stone to pity.

But it was now, too late. In a letter to Governor
Endicott dated May 27, 1660, he says, " I have not
seen my wife lately and, therefore, cannot tell how, in
the frame of her spirit, she was moved thus again, to
run so great a hazard to herself, and come to your
jurisdiction. Unhappy journey ! "

Those were, indeed, bitter days for "William Dyre,
and for his family. There were many other instances
of most revolting cruelty practiced upon persons not
resident in Ehode Island, and which continued till
Charles II. peremptorily forbade any further murders
to be perpetrated in the name of God, by those infuri-
ated zealots. An Eno-lish writer has said that " the most
important fact concerning Mary Dyre is that of her

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 33

murder having been the motive of the wonderfully
liberal charter granted by Charles IL, to the province
of Rhode Island, making it the lirst spot of earth on
the globe, whereon religious toleration and absolute
freedom of worship were established by law. What
influence the Dyres may have possessed at court
is not known, but it is possible to account for the
interest taken in her fate by Charles II., (who is
not to be credited with any purely humane considera-
tions,) from the fact that Mai-y had probably descended
from Sir Ludovick Dyer, Baronet, of Stoughton,
Hampshire county, whose patent bears date of 8th
June, 1627, (temp. Charles I.)."

Arnold, in his history of Rhode Island, says of the
Puritans : " In estimating their characters, we are too
apt to judge them by the light of the present day.
They founded a colony for their own faith, without
any idea of tolerating others. For doing this, they have
been chai-ged with bigotry, fanaticism, and folly. Every
epithet has been applied to them, that can be employed
to express detestation of the conduct of men acting un-
der a sober conviction of truth. Regarding their con-
duct from the standpoint of the nineteenth century, all
this may be just. The like proceedings in this age,
would deserve the severest sentence of condemnation.
But not so, two hundred years ago. The bigotry of
the Puritans was the bigotry of their times. In every
act, they illustrated the spirit of the age." From this
point of view, we must forgive them for the bitterness
of a persecution which brought the life of Mary Dyrc
3

34 SOME RECOKDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

to an untimely end on the 1st of June, 1660. It has
been said of her that she was "one of those rare spirits
who 2i.YQ predestined to become martyrs and saints to
the faith they profess." The sons of William and
Mary Dyre were Samuel, William, Henry, Mahershal-
alhashbaz, and Charles. The following record shows
that there were, at least, two daughters : " July 25,
1670, Samuel and Henry Dyre bind themselves to
their father, William Dyre, to pay to their sister (eld-
est daughter of William) £100 within three years after
the death of their father, and to Elizabeth Dyre (second
daughter of William) the sum of £40 when eighteen
years of age." The remarkable Scripture name given
to the fourth son, can be found in the eighth chapter
of Isaiah, first verse. It is a striking illustration of
the great fondness for Old Testament names, which
prevailed at that time, — a fondness which, it is said,
brought Beelzebub into use. The tragic death of the
wife and mother must have greatly saddened the lives
of William Dyre and his family; but unfortunately, our
accounts of them are very meagre. The commercial
prosperity of Newport began early in the history of the
country, when, owing to its magnificent harbor, it be-
came one of the principal ports of the New World,
and for a time rivalled New York in its general com-
merce, and surpassed it in the special branches of whal-
ing and trade with Africa and the Indies. It is pain-
ful to add that many of the fortunes which were ac-
cumulated were the result of a vigorous prosecution of
the African slave trade. On the breaking out of the

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 35

Revolutionary War, Newport was, to a great extent, de-
serted by its inhabitants and, being left in a defenceless
state, was occupied by the British for the three years
succeeding 1776. It was used for the most part as a
naval station, though some SOOO English and Plessians
were, during most of the time, either quartered in the
town or encamped in its suburbs. When the town
was evacuated in 1779, many buildings were wantonly
destroyed. At this time, the inhabitants numbered
only about 4000 souls ; and although efforts were at
once made to restore its prosperity as a commercial
port, it never recovered from the depressing effects of
British occupation. It is unfortunate that the town
records were either carried off, or destroyed hy the
British, for, with them, was lost the only source of in-
formation regarding the glory of ante- Revolutionary
Newport. The loss of these valuable documents pre-
vents us from having much knowledge of the marriages,
births, and deaths of members of the Dyre family, or
their wills. Neither do we know what were their
church relations. William Dyre, after the death of his
wife, continued his public services, and was chosen So-
licitor for the colony. In 1665, in a petition to the Com-
missioners, he offended the authorities by the freedom
of his complaints ; and " being reasoned with, admit-
ted his fault, in writing, to the Assembly, and received
pardon." On May 27th, 1669, it is recorded that
" William Dyre, Secretary of the Councell, this day
rendered up unto the Councell, the books and ])apers
which belonged unto them, and also the scale.'' It is

36 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

hardly possible that a life of such constant activity and
care should pass without leaving its traces upon him,
in various v^-ays, and he must at times have been very
weary of it. Many years had passed since he first land-
ed in America, and how little peace, and quietness, he
had known ! His children, too, were beginning to
leave him for other homes. William Dyre, Jr., about
the time of his mother's death, went to the State of
Delaware. There are many of his descendants, among
the first families of Delaware and Maryland. The
"Wynkoops, Georges, Bradfords. the families of Judge
Milligan, of Wilmington, and of the Hon. Lewis Mc-
Lane, all belong to the Dyre genesis.

Samuel Dyre, the oldest son of William and Mary,
married Ann Hutchinson, daughter of Captain Edward
Hutchinson, and granddaughter of the famous Ann
Hutchinson. She was also a grandniece of the poet,
John Dryden. Mrs. Dyre's grandmother is described
as " a woman of great intellectual endowments and of
masculine enei'gy, to whom even her enemies ascribed
unusual mental powers, styling her " the masterpiece
of woman's wit," and describing her as " a gentlewoman
of an haughty carriage, busy spirit, competent wit, and
a voluble tongue ; who, by a remarkable union of char-
ity, devotion and ability, soon became the leader not
only of her own sex, but of a powerful party in the
state and church, so that her opponents have termed
her " The Nonsuch." She went first to Providence,
and thence to Aquidneck, which had just been pur-
chased by the fugitives of her party, and where her

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 37

husband died in 1642. Soon after this bereavement,
she removed with her family to a spot near Hurl Gate,
within the Dutch jurisdiction, where, in a short time,
she and, with the exception of one child, all her house-
hold, sixteen in number, were murdered by the Indians
in 164:3. Whether her granddaughter, Mrs. Samuel
Dyre, inherited Mrs. Hutchinson's talents and graces,
we do not know. Mrs. Dyre was early left a widow
with two sons, Samuel and Edward, and September
22d, 1679, at Tower Hill, Xarragansett, she married
Daniel Yernon, a man of very superior education, who
spoke several languages, and was long a tutor in the
family of Lodowick Updike, in Xortli Kingstown. She
had three children after her marriage to Mr. Yernon —
Daniel, Samuel, and Catharine; from them are sprung
one of the most distinguished families of Newport. A
descendant, William Yernon, was in familiar corre-
spondence with La Fayette, Adams, Yiscount Xoailles,
Franklin, and other men of note in his day. He was
a great friend of learning, and was appointed president
of the Redwood Library on the death of its founder
and first president ; and the Second Congregational
Church owed much to his liberality. He entered heart
and soul into the cause of freedom during the Revolu-
tion; and it is said that, " to his unflinching devotion to
liberty, personal sacrifices, and extraordinary exertions,
America, under Providence, owes much of her success
upon the sea." Ann Dyre Yernon died January 10th,
1716, and her gravestone is still standing in the Yernon
lot at Newport, beside that of her husband. Her

855^3

38 SOME EECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

father, Captain Edward Hutchinson, was actively en-
gaged in King Philip's war, and commanded a body of
troops. In his will, proved in Boston in 1675, he gives
all his Narragansett lands to Elizabeth Winslow, Ann
Dyre, and Susanna Hutchinson — the latter afterwards
married Nathaniel Coddington,

The name of Samuel Dyre appears in various records.

In 1661, land in Narragansett, called Misquamokuck
(now Westerly), was taken by William Dyre, Sr.,
Samuel Dyre, and Mahershalalhashbaz Dyre, and^arti-
cles of agreement between an Indian captain and others
were signed by them. William Dyre was appointed to
transcribe the deeds, testimonies, ratifications, etc. At a
general meeting, February 17th, 1661-2, William Dyre
was chosen surveyor of Misquamokuck. At the court
held at Acquedneset, near Wickford, May 20th, 1671,
the persons inhabiting here being called to give their
eno-asement and desirino; to know whether or no the
court, on behalf of the colony, do lay any claim to their
possessions which they now inhabit, which persons
were Mr. Samuel Dyre and others. To which demand
this present court do return unanimously this answer :
That on behalf of the colony this court do not lay any
claims to their possessions which they now inhabit.
May 21st, 1669, Samuel Dyer, of Narragansett, was ap-
pointed one of two conservators of his Majesty's peace
for the Narragansett country — the other being Richard
Smith. The latter had, in 1639, established a trading
post, and erected the first English dwelling at Wick-

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 39

ford. In 1656, Mr. Smith leased of the Indians, for
66 years, all the land which now forms the present
site of Wickford. A few years afterwards, he leased
it again for a thousand years. In 166(», he received a
quitclaim deed of nearly, if not quite all, of these
lands. Some estimate may be formed of his extensive
domain, when we lind that the tract was nine miles
long, and three miles in width. Roger Williams
named the place Wickford, in honor of a lady guest of
Richard Smith's. Smith bought also Mr. Williams' in-
terest, including " his trading house, his two big guns,
and a small island (Rabbit Island) for goats."

The following letter from Roger Williams, with
reference to this estate of Richard Smith's, is so quaint
that I cannot resist insertinor it,

Nahiggonsik, 24th July, 1679, (ut vulgo).
" 1st. I, Roger Williams, of Providence, in theNahig-
gonsik bay in N. Engl., being (b}' God's mersie) ye first
beginner of ye Towne of Providence and of ye Col-
ony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations,
being now neere to Foure Score years of age, yet (by
God's mersie) of sound understanding and memorie,
doe humbly and faithfully declare yt Mr. Richard
Smith, Senior, who, for his conscience to God, left faire
possessions in Gloster Shire, and adventured with his
Relations and Estate to N. Engl., and was a most ac-
ceptable Inhabitant and prime leading man in Taunton
in Plymouth Colony. For his conscience' sake (many
differences arising) he left Taunton, and came to ye

40 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

Nahiggonsik country, where, by God's mersie and ye
fave of ye Nahiggonsik sachems he broke ye Ice (at
his great Charge and Hazard) and put up in ye thickest
of ye Barbarians ye first English House amongst them.

" 2d. I liumbly testifieyt about forty years (from this
date) he kept Possession, comming and going himselfe,
children and servants, and he had quiet Possession of
his Howsing, Lands and meadow, and there, in his
own house, with much serenity of soule and comfort, he
yielded up his spirit to God, ye Father of Spirits, in
Peace."

Never a claim to land in New England was involved
in greater uncertainty than this. The fight for its pos-
session lasted long after Roger Williams had been placed
in his grave. All the surrounding colonies became
gradually involved in it. Rhode Island came near be-
ing entirely absorbed by Massachusetts and Connecticut.
Many were the traditions of long-continued wars and
bloody conflicts ; and his Indian neighbors had to tell
when Richard Smith settled in Wickford, in the year
of our Lord 1639.

In October 1674, just before King Philip's war, and
a generation after Richard Smith had taken up his
abode within it borders. Kings Towne was incorporated.
It thus became the seventh town in the colony of
Rhode Island, although, in point of fact, it was proba-
bly the third settlement. In 1679, the incorporation
was reaffirmed. In 1722 the town was divided into
North and South Kingstown, the act of legislature
providing that North Kingstown be considered the

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 41

elder town. These towns were generally known as the
"Narragansett country," and their history is full of in-
terest and romance. In South Kingstown occurred the
great Narragansett Swamp Fight between the English
and the Indians, which resulted in the destruction of
the Narragansetts as a tribe. Commodore Oliver Haz-
ard Perry, the hero of Lake Erie, was born in South
Kingstown.

The town of East Greenwich was founded in May,
1677. Five thousand acres were granted to fifty per-
sons in consideration of services rendered in King
Philip's war, who thus became proprietors of the
town, and founders of the new settlement of East
Greenwich. The early settlers expected great things
of the town. The liberality with which they
laid out the streets, shows that they meant that it
should be worthy of its future greatness. The
names which they bestowed upon them. King, Queen,
Marlboro', Duke, London, etc., are proofs of their
loyalty to the mother country. In the year 1709,
the town purchased a tract of land adjoining its
western border, containing thirty-five thousand acres.
The first Collector was Thomas Arnold. East Green-
wich has the honor to have printed the first calico
in America ; some time previous to 1794, a man
named Dawson erected print works. Jemima Wilk-
inson had a meeting-house there about 1774. On the
31st of October, 1677, one hundred acres of the five
thousand were allotted to Henry Dyre. He had also,
in 1670 and in 1680, received land by deed from

43 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

his father, William Dyre, and his brother Samuel.
Whether Henry Dyre resided on his land in East
Greenwich I have no means of knowing. He died in
February, 1690, aged 43 years. When I was in that
pretty town in September, 1883, I found but few old
records in the office of the town clerk, and most unfort-
unately, the town records of North Kingstown were
destroyed by fire, some years ago. Undoubtedly in the
probate proceedings, much valuable information might
have been obtained, which is now forever lost. It is
well known, however, that members of the Dyre fam-
ily settled on lands bordering on Narragansett Bay.
Beautiful estates they were, and tradition tells us of
the style which was long kept up among them. In
the days of slavery, the colored coachman and footman
in livery, were by no means uncommon, and the land
was tilled and cultivated by slave labor. When slav-
ery was done away with, they probably took the plough
in their own hands, and could heartily sing with
Burns, " A man's a man for a' that." At what time
the name was changed from Dyre to Dyer is not
known. In a family cemetery of North Kingston I
found one stone only with the old spelling : that of
Captain Samuel Dyre, who died April 4th, 1791, in
the 34th year of his age. Probably the new spelling
was adopted by degrees. The name certainly was
not improved by the change, and it is a pity that the
spelling of years, was not retained.

In a book recently published in England, I find

SOME KECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 43

further notices of William, Dyi'e. It is entitled,
" Dorothea Scott, of Egerton House, Kent, 1611 to
1680, by G. D. Scull, editor of 'The Evelyns in
America.' Printed for private circulation by Perker
& Co., Oxford, 1883." It is stated in the book that
one John Scott, who came to America, had defrauded
Mrs. Dorothea Scott, who " did intrust him with the
whole concernes of her estate, which in the end proved
fatall to her." The Duke of York commanded Sam-
uel Pepys, Secretary to the Admiralty, to collect evi-
dence against Scott. This Samuel Pepys is the au-
thor of the " Diary " much read and quoted. He had
an interview with Captain William Dyre in London,
on the 19th September, 1679, and engaged him to
collect information in New York and elsewhere, con-
cerning Scott's antecedents in America. Captain Dyre
wrote to Pepys '* from on board y* ship Bevei\ in y®
Downes, y^ 2*^ of 8ber., 1679," and incidentally men-
tioned that Mr. Randolph " sends his service." This
was Edward Randolph, Charles II. 's commissioner to
New England, who made eight voyages aci'oss the At-
hintic in nine years. Thomas Lovelace, an important
witness for Pepys, was making a visit to England in
1680, and on his return that year to New York, Pepys
gave him letters of introduction to Captain Dyre and Sir
Edmund Andross. (This Captain Dyre, it is stated, was
the husband of Mary Dyre, who was executed in 1660,
in Boston, for her professions of Quakerism. It is also
stated that the descendants of William Dyre spelled their
name Dyer.) Samuel Pepys writes to William Dyre :

44 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

" September 20th, 1679.
" Sib : "Were it not yt y^ Honour of his Majesties
and his service is more concerned in it than any inter-
est of my owne, I should not hold it so excusable in
me to offer y* trouble I am now designing you ; but
knowing how acceptable anything is to you wherein
His Honour and y** Justice due to His Ministers is con-
cerned, I take y^ liberty of putting into your hands an
Extract of a letter relating to severall parties by him
therein charged upon one Captain John Scott. I am
to desire y* so soon as you shall be received where you
are now going (and towards w'^^ I wish you a happy
voyage), you will use y** speediest and most effectnall
means you can of informing yourself e, and enabling me
to report to his Majesty, what evidences you can col-
lect of y® truth of y* particulars menc'oned in y^ said
Extract, and of whatever undue behaviours you shall
(upon inquiry into y*" legend of Scott's life in New
England, Long Island, and parts adjacent) obtaine y®
certaine knowledge of. W''' takeing y*" liberty of re-
commending to you, 1 beg you to favour me w"' any
commands of yours wherein I may, in some measure,
answer yo'' respect to me in this particular, assuring
you of my being, with all faithfulness, y"" most humble
servant, Samuel Pepts.''

The following letter was written to Samuel Pepys
by William Dyre, dated :

New York% 4th January, 1680.
" Worthy Sir : Yours of the 24th Aug*, by Mr.

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 4:5

Lovelace, I have received, for which great favour of
correspondence I own myselfe much obliged, and am
unexpressibly rejoiced that Sir Anthony and yourselfe
are out of y* pernitious power of that villain Scott,
whome, doubtlesse, the hands of Justice one day will
reach for all his horrid contrivances and practices w""
condign punishment.- You may please to know
hee has a son now gone from here to England, to seek
out his flfather, hearing that hee was famous in y^ king-
dome. But I doubt y* young man will be disappointed
in his expedition ; hee can certainly informe you that
his mother is alive in y^ province, and yett, as wee
heare, old Scott had the Impudence to make his ad-
dresses to y* Lady Yane, and that in a very splendid
manner, and had not Death (which some say hee oc-
casioned) put a period to her days, he had most miser-
ably deluded, deceived, and abused her ladyship. Sir,
you will (by the occasion of some like Coll. Scott),
have the advantage of seeing my Governor, Sir Ed-
mund Andross, in England, who, doubtless, is a person
of that great worth and honour as not to have his
name or reputation blemished by anything but what
is false, envious, and malicious, which has caused the
Dukes desires of seeing him at home with all speed,
and soe hath given his Excellency the trouble and danger
of a severe winter's voyage ; but I hope y* sunshine
of his happy returne to us in the Spring, will dispell all
those malevolent clouds, and render the people of
theis country (under his Maj"*' and Royal Highness
dominion) as fortunate as formerly by his prudence

46 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

and noble government, the continuance of which, to-
gether with your health and prosperity, is the hearty
desire of yours, etc. etc., William Dyke."

England was at this time having serious difficulty
with the Dutch, and it may have been that loyalty to
his native land, took William Dyre to England. It
has been hinted that he " did a little privateering on
his own account, and that privateering theii, was com-
mon with respectable persons." This charge has
never been sustained, and the esteem in which he
was held seems to contradict any accusation of unfair
or dishonest dealing. In a letter from Koger Wil-
liams to his " dear and loving friends and neighbors,
of Providence and Warwick," dated from the resi-
dence of Sir Henry Yane, at Belleau, in Lincolnshire,
April 1st, 1653, he says : " I hope it may have pleased
the Most High Lord of sea and land, to bring dear
Mr. Dyre unto you." After 1680 we lose all trace of
William Dyre. In that year he was collector of cus-
toms at New York for the Duke of York. Un-
doubtedly the town records taken so unceremoni-
ously, by the British, from Newport would have told
the tale, now lost to us forever. It is probable that
advanced age kept him in America for the rest of his
days, and that he died on his Newport farm in 1681.
His friend, Roger Williams, died in 1683, aged 84,
and it is known that the death of William Dyre oc-
curred before that time. As they had been so closely
and intimately connected in life, it is pleasant to know

SOME RECORDS OF TUE DYER FAMILY. 47

that their descendants have kept up the friendly tie,
there havinir been several intermarria£;es amonoj them.
Some of our best and most valued citizens are proud
to claim descent from these alliances.

It has been impossible to trace the liistory of all the
children of William, and Mary Dyre ; but I liave been
able to lind tl^ most important laics' with reference to
the descent of the branch of the family in which I am
most interested, and it is this :

First. William and Mary Dyre.

Second. Samuel, their eldest son, baptized in Bos-
ton, December 20th, 1635. Married Anne Hutchin-
son, daughter of Captain Edward Hutchinson, grand-
daughter of the celebrated Anne Hutchinson, great
granddaughter of the Re v. Edward^Marbury, of Lincoln- 'y-f/, u if
shire, England, and grandniece of the poet John Dryden.

May 21st, 1669, Samuel Dyre was appointed one of
two conservators of his Majesty's peace for the Narra-
gansett country, and was long engaged in promoting
the settlement of that country.

Third. Edward Dyre, son of Samuel and Anne
Hutchinson Dyre, was born in 1670. He married

Mary . Owned a farm in North Kingstown,

May 7th, 1712, he petitions to the General Assembly
of Rhode Island concerning a highway near his land.

Fourth. Edward Dyre, Jr., son of Edward and Mary
was born in North Kingstown, January 6th, 1701 — lived
in North Kingstown, and was made freeman. May
1st, 1722. In 17-18 was deputy to the General As-
sembly from North Kingstown.

V

t { r c .'^?',/S<_

48 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

Fifth. Edward Dyre (son of Edward, Jr.) was born in
North Kingstown in 1725. "Was made freeman in
May, 1T52. Married Elizabeth Fish, Nov. 29th, 1750.
Their children were "William, Charles, Frances, Benja-
min, Amherst, Henry., Susannah, Anna, Elizabeth.

Sixth. Henry Dyre (son of Edward Dyre, 3d) was
born in North Kingstown, July 12th, 1759. On tlie
19th of March, 1787, he married Sarah Coy. Soon
after his marriage he went to Shaftesbury, Vermont,
and there the following children were born : Moses,
Anna, Olive, Lydia, Rufus, Dennis, David, Daniel,
Lewis, Heman. His son Dr. Lewis Dyer speaks thus
of him : " My father was a modest man. He was a
great reader, especially of history. When he went to
school he walked three miles, twice a day. He culti-
vated intellectual arithmetic with much interest, and
in his old age, when his sons were at home, would
often reach results by mental process in half the time
it required them by the use of slate and pencil. There
was much of the ' old school gentleman ' about him."

Henry Dyer died January 2d, 1855, aged 95 years.
Sarah Coy Dyer died July 26th, 1846, aged 77. Their
last years were spent on a farm delightfully situated in
the valley between the Green and Equinox ranges of
mountains, near the beautiful village of Manchester,
Vermont. In this secluded home they reared their
family of children, giving them every educational ad-
vantage possible, and fitting them for useful citizens.
No iron road then ran through that remote valley, no
shrill whistle echoing through the mountains gave to

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 49

those dwellers in rural homes intimations of the stir,
the gatherings, the quick life, the accelerated move-
ments of the populations of cities. They were far
away from great centres, which did not, as they now
do, report themselves daily — transmit daguerreotypes of
their busy, bustling scenes to the quiet village and
the lonely farm-house. Children reared amid such
surroundings must often have longed to pass those
mountain barriers, and as the family of Henry Dyer
on " Equinox Farm " grew up, they left their home
on the hillside, to take their part in the battle of life.
The farm, however, still remains in the family, and is
now owned by Douglas Henry Dyer, a grandson of
Henry Dyer, Senior. The two following sketches are
of the youngest sons of Henry and Sarah Coy Dyer.

Lewis Dyer, M.D., son of Henry and Sarah Coy
Dyer, was born in Shaftesbury, Vermont, February
24th, 1807. He graduated December, 1828, at the
Berkshire Medical Institute, Massachusetts, which was
organized under the charter of Williams College.
After practicing a few years, at Gloversville, Xew
York, he emigrated westward in the summer of 1832.
"While visiting his brother. Rev. Heman Dyer, D. D.,
then connected with Kenyon College, Gambler, Ohio,
the trustees of the college and theological seminary,
offered him the position of physician to these institu-
tions, which he accepted, and filled for a few years.
That field being too limited for professional labor, he
moved to Mount Vernon, in the same county, where
4

50 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

he shared, for a time, an office with the Hon. Cohimbus
Delano, late Secretary of the Interior — the one dis-
pensing plijsic — the other, law and metaphysics.
While liere he edited the Whig newspaper of the city,
and was a member of the Ohio Whig State Conven-
tion, called to consider what action should be taken
consequent upon the repeal of the Missouri Compro-
mise. While some advocated its restoration, Dr.
Dyer said, " Let it stand repealed, but never admit
another slave State into the Union," In 1855 he
moved to Iowa, but the winters were too severe for
his wife and daughter, and, declining a professorship
in a medical college at Keokuk, he sought a more
genial climate at Du Quoin, Illinois. When the late
war broke out he was instrumental in sending many
soldiers into the field and, at the personal request of
Governor Yates, accepted the position of surgeon to
the Eighty-first Illinois regiment, to which office this
regiment elected him. On the day he entered the
field he was placed upon the operating staff, where he
remained for two years, after which he was promoted
to the office of surgeon-in-chief of division, the
duties of which were both grave and arduous. In
justice to the subject of this notice, an episode in his
army life should here be noted. Two or three officers
of the line, having become displeased with the Doctor,
succeeded, by subornation of perjury, in having
certain charges secretly preferred against him and
forwarded to the Secretary of War. It was a month,
or more, before this conspiracy came to the Doctor's

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 51

knowledge. It was then communicated by his colonel,
who advised him to resign. This he indignantly refused
to do; as, under the circumstances, it would be an
admission of guilt and both dishonorable and cow-
ardly.

He now repaired to General Grant's headquarters
and, on learning that a document containing certain
charges had been received and forwarded to the
Secretary of War, inquired what an innocent, honor-
able and determined man should do, to vindicate him-
self. Whereupon General Grant at once issued an
order to General McPherson to convene a court of
inquiry, forthwith, to investigate the matter. Such
a court was convened, and the evidence elicited by it
not only exculpated the Doctor, but brought to light
one of the foulest conspiracies on record. The pro-
ceedings of the court, with a letter from General
McPherson, were forwarded to the War Department ;
but, meantime, an order dismissing Dr. Dyer from the
service, with the loss of all pay, was received and read
at dress parade. The Doctor was present, and re-
marked : "" Gentlemen, this matter will not end here !"
Doffing his shoulder straps, and repairing to General
McPherson's headquarters, he said to that officer :
" General, I have come to tender my services to carry
a musket in the ranks!" The corps medical director,
who was present, interposed by saying, " If Dr. Dyer
wishes to volunteer, I shall be verj' glad to assign him
to duty, as we need his services very much.'" This
arrangement was entered upon, but shortly terminated

52 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

bj the prompt restoration of the Doctor to his former
position. He was regarded by his associates as a skill-
ful, brave and noble officer. A high compliment was
paid him, when, at the close of the war, the history of
the Illinois troops being called for, by an act of the
Legislature, Dr. Dyer was assigned to the duty of
writing the history of his command. It must be a
pleasant reflection that, being himself the son of a
Revolutionary soldier, who fought to establish our
government and institutions, he and his two sons,
during "the great rebellion," fought to save them.
Keturning to Du Quoin after the war, he resumed his
profession, and has pursued it ever since, conscious of
the confidence and good will of the public and profes-
sion, generally. He has ever been an active and effi-
cient member and once the president of the Southern
Illinois Medical Association — a body of two hundred
physicians, all graduates. In 1875, the office of United
States examining surgeon was offered him, which he
accepted. During the last year, the board, of which
he is president, examined over five hundred pensioners.
He is the friend of popular education, and much of
his life has been connected with educational interests.
In politics he is a Republican, but believes the party
has been needlessly demoralized by the unscrupulous
conduct of demagogues. He has delivered numerous
public addresses and lectures on a variety of subjects.
On General Grant's return to the United States, after
his voyage around the world, and his visit to Mexico,
Dr. Dyer, by appointment of his fellow citizens, de-

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 53

livered to him the address of welcome, on his arrival
at Du Quoin. He commenced as follows :

" General Grant : I need not say, this assemblage
of people has no political significance whatever. We
are met to greet you, and to welcome you home to
your native land.

" We have met to show respect to the distinguished
general and the magnanimous conqueror ; the ex-
President of the United States, the renowned travel-
ler, — and the illustrious citizen. We have met to show
respect to the private citizen who has been honored
above all other men, living or dead, by the crowned
heads of Europe and Asia; and who, in the presence
of royalty and amid the blandishments of court
etiquette and the dazzling splendor of oriental nations,
has never uttered a sentiment compromising his per-
sonal dignity and his exalted personal character ; but
who has always proved the faithful and true exponent
of the principles and institutions of his own glorious
country."

Dr. Dyer has had a large experience in presiding
over conventions and public assemblies. He was
president of the large liepublican club of the city in
which he lives, during the campaigns of Grant, Hayes
and Garfield. The most notable occasion of this kind
was at a Congressional convention held at Cairo,
Illinois, a year or two ago, to nominate a candidate for
Congress, which, during its two days' and two nights'
continuance, threatened, several times, to break up in
a row, and would have done so but for Dr. Dver's

54 SOME EECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

level Lead and firm hand. His life has always been a
useful and active one. In December, 1883, he writes
to a friend, " I shall be, according to tradition, seventy-
seven years old next February, and this has been one
of the busiest years of my life !"

The Rev. Heman Dyer, D. D., was born in the
town of Shaftesbury, Bennington county, Vermont,
9'i/o: on the W^ of September, 1810. He was the son of
'^ Henry and Sarah Coy Dyer. His father and all his
uncles on his father's side served in the war of the
Revolution. One of his uncles became a captain in
the service.

While Dr. Dyer was yet a child, about six years of
age, his father removed to Manchester in the same
county and State. Here he spent the rest of his child-
hood and early youth, attending the district school
during the winter and working on the farm in the
summer. When in his fifteenth year he created quite
a sensation by commencing the study of Latin, a thing
unheard of at that day in a district school. In his six-
teenth or seventeenth year he was sent to the academy
in Arlington in the same county. Here he pursued
his studies preparatory to entering college. Among
his instructors were the Rev. Anson B. Hard, the
principal of the academy, and the Rev. Dr. Coit, the
rector of the parish. To these instructors he became
strongly attached, and for them he ever after cherished
the sincerest respect.

During this period Dr. Dyer taught the district

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 55

school in two of the neighborhoods in Arlington,
spending in all about eight months in this occupation.
As he was much younger than many of his scholars, he
had to assume an air of dignity and importance, which
seemed rather comical to himself and his friends. It
being the custom for the school-master and the school-
mistress to board round among all the families of the
district, he thus acquired a kind of knowledge and ex-
perience, which served a most valuable purpose during
the rest of his life. While pursuing his studies in
Arlington, there occurred an incident which shaped,
very largely, his whole future career. It had been his
wish and ambition to enter and go through either
Middlebury College or the University at Burlington,
both in his native State, but one day at the academy
there was put in his hand, by some one, a leaflet en-
titled " The Star in the West," after the fashion of
Dr. Buchanan's " Star in the East." This leaflet was
prepared and sent out by the Rt. Rev. Philander
Chase, D. D., the first bishop of Ohio, and was a plea
and appeal in behalf of education and Christian missions
in the West. Bishop Chase was then engaged in
founding Kenyon College, and the other institutions at
Gambler. The appeal so stirred up the young student
that he resolved at once to go to Ohio, at the earliest
day practicable. When he made his resolution known to
his classmates and others, they were amazed ; admir-
ing, no doubt, his pluck more than his wisdom. They
could not understand how a vouno; ji man should be
willing to go so far from home, and buiy himself in

56 SOME EECOKDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

such a wilderness as Ohio then was. Fortunately his
parents did not oppose the idea, but rather encouraged
it.

Accordingly, at the close of his second engagement
as a teacher, about the 20th of April, 1829, he left his
home, and the East, for the West. The West was then
most emphatically in Ohio. He made the journey
from Manchester to Gambier — about the centre of the
State — entirely by stage, consuming fourteen days and
nights in continuous traveling. He reached Gambier
early in May, a perfect stranger, and without even a
note of introduction from anybody to anybody. He
commenced his studies without delay, hoping to enter
the Freshman class in Kenyon College at the beginning
of the next term, which he succeeded in doing. As
student, teacher, tutor, and head of one of the depart-
ments of the institution, he remained in Gambier ten
years and a half. For two years and more, he occupied
the anomalous position of a student and also of a mem-
ber of the faculty. While in these double relations, he
became acquainted with, and rendered some valuable
services to, Edwin M. Stanton, afterward the great
War Secretary in President Lincoln's cabinet ; Mr.
Stanton never forgot these services. During these
ten and a half years. Dr. Dyer took his degrees of
A. B. and A. M. While yet a student he was elected
as secretary of the Diocesan Convention, and treasurer
of the Episcopal fund. It was during this period that
the difficulties arose between Bishop Chase and the
faculty, with regard to the administration of the insti-

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 57

tutions. Tliese difficulties were followed by the resig-
nation of the Bishop both as president of the college,
and Bishop of the diocese. Subsequently, upon the elec-
tion of Dr. Mcllvaine to succeed Bishop Chase, Dr.
Dyer was sent East to lay before the Bishop-elect the
official documents connected with the election and such
other information as might be desired. After Bishop
Mcllvaine took charge of the diocese. Dr. Dyer was
ordained by him, both as deacon and as presbyter. In
his many and varied duties he was constantly occupied
until the spring of 184:0, when he removed to Pitts-
burgh, Penn., and established a classical school there.
At the head of this school he continued for three years
or more, when he was elected to a professorship in the
"Western University of Pennsylvania. After serving
for one year as professor he was elected principal or,
as it was subsequently called, chancellor of the institu-
tion. About this time he received the degree of D.D.
from Trinity College, Hartford. lie was then in the
34:th year of his age. In the great fire in Pittsbui-gh
the University Buildings, with the library and ap-
paratus, were entirely destroyed. Within a year new
buildings were erected and the institution was pros-
perous, but the health of Dr. Dyer was very much
shattered by his many cares and labors, and in 1849 he
resigned his connection with the University and re-
moved to Philadelphia, where he had been invited to
perform certain duties in connection with the Ameri-
can Sunday School Union. He continued in this con-
nection from February, 184:9, to January, 1854. In

58 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

1852 he and his wife visited Europe, spending between
six and seven months.

About a year after his return from Europe, he was
elected Corresponding Secretary and General Manager
of the Protestant Episcopal Society for the Promotion
of Evangelical Knowledge, commonly called the Evan-
gelical Knowledge Society. This society was formed
in 1847, and had for one of its objects the meeting
and counteracting of certain tendencies in the Episco-
pal Church, which had been largely awakened and
promoted by the somewhat famous Oxford, or Trac-
tarian, movement in England.

He accepted the new position to which he had been
appointed, and removed to New York early in 1854.
The duties to which he was now called brought him
more or less into antagonism with many of the leading
influences of his church. He met the charge of dis-
loyalty brought against the new society, by inducing
the Executive Committee to bring out the Book of
Common Prayer in three or four different sizes, and
give it the widest possible circulation. For several
years this society distributed more prayer books than
all the other societies put together. This action was a
practical and logical answer to the criticisms which
had been made.

From 1854 to 1861, he was constantly employed in
his duties at the office of the society in New York,
and in visiting various parts of the country, to attend
diocesan conventions and public meetings, and to preach
and make addresses in the interest of the society.

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 59

In 1861, M'hen tlie war broke out, the society was
actively engaged in publishing books, tracts, and two
periodicals, the Parish Visitor and the Standard
Bearer. \]\) to this time the duties of editor-in-chief
had been discharged, Urst, by the Rev. John S. Stone,
D. D., and afterwards by the Rev. C. W. Andrews,
D. D., of Virginia. As the war interrupted all regu-
lar intercouse with the South, Dr. Dyer was requested
to act as editor of the society's publications and
periodicals; this added very largely to his cares and
responsibilities. In 1861 the American Church Mis-
sionary Society was organized, and Dr. Dyer was ap-
pointed Corresponding Secretar3\ About the same
time the New York branch of the Christian Commis-
sion was established, and he became its local secretary,
the Hon. Nathan Bishop being the chief secretary.
He was also made a director of the American Bible
Society. In 1862 he was elected the first Bishop of
the new Diocese of Kansas, which office he declined
to accept. During the war he was appointed on
several occasions to visit AVashington, with others, in
behalf of the work of the Christian Commission. On
one occasion he was taken by Secretary Stanton into a
cabinet meeting and, on introducing him to Mr.
Lincoln, the Secretary said, "Mr. President, I wish to
introduce to you my old friend, the Rev. Dr. Dyer, of
New York ; he was my friend when I needed a friend."
To which the President, stretching out his long arm
and grasping the Doctor's hand, and shaking it vigor-
ously, responded : " I am glad to see you, sir ; I am

60 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

glad to know any one who helped to make my Secre-
tary of "War, for I don't know what / should have
done without him," With that, Mr. Seward, Mr.
Fessenden, and others of the cabinet clapped their
hands, and cried " Good, good."

During one of his visits to Washington he went, in
company with the Rev. Dr. Butler, to see the magnifi-
cent army of General McClellan of some 200,000 men,
encamped a few miles from Washington. Dr. Dyer's
only son was at this time a soldier in this army.
While dining with the captain of the company to
which his son belonged, they were startled by the
sudden order for the regiments to form and prepare for
battle. At once the whole scene was changed, and
infantry, cavalry and artillery were in motion ; the
dinner and all ceremony were cut short, and the two
Doctors of Divinity hastened to their horse and wagon,
which an orderly had charge of, and commenced a
rapid advance in a direction quite opposite to that
towards which the troops were moving.

The battle proved to be the short and sharp skir-
mish of Drainesville. But it enabled the visitors to
see the great army in motion, and marching in columns,
six or eight deep, and at double quick time. On
another occasion, when Dr. Dyer was called to Wash-
ington to see his son who was confined in one of the
hospitals there, Mr. Stanton showed him much atten-
tion by having him spend the whole morning with
him in his ofiice at the War Department, and the
afternoon with him and his family at their private

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 61

residence. Before leaving, the Secretary surprised the
Doctor by giving him, to take to his son, at the hospi-
tal, a captain's commission, and the copy of an order
appointing him to duty, as soon as he should be able
to leave, in the commissary department in New York.
He also offered the Doctor an appointment to an impor-
tant position in connection with the chaplain service,
which he felt bound to decline. These friendly rela-
tions between the two parties continued till the death
of Mr. Stanton.

During the war Dr. Dyer took an active part with
Bishop Alonzo Potter and others, in establishing and
endowing the Philadelphia Divinity School. For
many years he was a member of its Board of Manage-
ment. At the close of the war, and at the request of
several prominent laymen of New York, he visited the
Theological Seminary of Virginia, and some of the
government officials at "Washington, in reference to the
restoration of the buildinors and g-rounds of the institu-
tion, so that they might again be used for their origi-
nal purposes. For a considerable time they had been
occupied as hospitals, and needed many repairs. At a
later period he visited Richmond in Virginia and
Charleston, South Carolina, to ascertain the condition
of things in the South and the best methods of ex-
tending needed aid on the part of Northern friends.
These visits resulted in much pecuniary assistance to
individuals and institutions in that part of the country.

Dr. Dyer took an active part in the formation of the
" Latimer Society," and afterwards of the " Clerical

63 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

Associatiou," — both located in New York, and estab-
lished in the interests of evangelical religion. In
these and many other associations, he was incessantly
occupied, and to a degree that most seriously impaired
his health.

In 1868 it became evident that he must have rest, or
completely break down. Accordingly, it was so ar-
ranged that he could be relieved of his duties ; and
early in the spring, accompanied by his wife and
daughter, he sailed for Europe, where he spent several
months in England and Scotland and on the Con-
tinent. On his return in October, a breakfast was
given him by his friends, in one of the public halls.
In the autumn of 1869 Dr. Dyer met with a most
serious railroad accident. He was on his way from
Troy to Manchester, Yt. Heavy rains had produced
very high water in all the streams, and much damage
had been done to the railroads. Consequently, the
trains were running very irregularly. Just before the'
train on which he had taken passage reached Lansing-
burg, at a sharp turn of the road, it came into col-
lision with a train coming from the north. The crash
was terrible, and the cars of both trains were piled
on top of one another in a most indescribable manner.
Only one person was killed, but many were injured.
This occasioned a delay for several hours. It was
raining very heavily. Night came on, and everything
was shrouded in darkness and gloom. The conductor
told the few passengers in the car that he would take
them to Hoosick Falls, where they would find hotel

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 63

accommodations. On reaching the Hoosick River, it
was found to be verj much swollen, and the' passen-
gers were requested to leave the cars and cross the
bridge on foot, as it was not safe to attempt to take
the locomotive and cars across it. With much diffi-
culty the bridge was crossed, and at about 9 o'clock in
the evening some ten or fourteen passengers got on
the locomotive and tender, which were found on the
other side of the river. Dr. Dyer was on the loco-
motive, near the engineer. After going about three-
fourths of a mile thev came to a curve in the road,
where the river, now swollen to a raging flood, had,
during the preceding hour, completely swept out the
foundation of the road, but the rails appeared to be
undisturbed. As soon as the locomotive came upon
this spot, both it and the tender went down, instantly,
into the fearful chasm, a distance of some thirty or
forty feet. Most of those on the tender jumped off,
and thus saved themselves. All on the locomotive
were carried down into the raging waters. Several
were killed instantly. Dr. Dyer was carried down
with the others ; but, extricating himself from the loco-
motive, he was swept away by the current, and being
a good swimmer, he succeeded at last in making a
landing about three quarters of a mile down the river
and was saved, though he was terribly bruised. He
never recovered his usual health and strength after
this accident. The shock to his nervous system was
too great to pass permanently away.

As early as 1865 Dr. Dyer was appointed a member

64 SOME RiQORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

of the Foreign Co^j^ittee of the Board of Missions,
which added very ^^^h to his labors. When the
Board established commissions for work among the
freedmen of the South a^^d the Indians in our Western
States and Territories, he ^as placed upon the execu-
tive committees of each o± these bodies, and made
chairman of that for the Indian Commission. This
made it necessary for him to carry on an extensive
correspondence, and to have frequent personal inter-
course with the Secretary of the Interior, the Com-
missioner of Indian Affairs, and other officials at
Washington.. As the nomination of Indian agents
for all the reservations assigned by the government
to the Episcopal Church devolved upon his commit-
tee. Dr. Dyer became painfully acquainted with the
plans and schemes and wicked devices of politicians,
great and small, in carrying out and accomplishing
their personal and selfish ends in this branch of the
public service. He often spoke of the conduct of
men holding the highest political, and even moral,
trusts with the severest disapprobation and disgust ;
and very glad was he when, by a change in the policy
of the government, as well as of the church, he was
relieved of this most unpleasant service.

In 1873 a meeting of the Evangelical Alliance took
place in New York. As a member of one of the com-
mittees, Dr. Dyer took a deep and active interest in the
proceedings of this body. In the same year, what has
been termed the " Cummins Movement," that is, the
secession of one Bishop and several of the clergy from

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 65

the Episcopal Church, took place. While Dr. Dyer
sympathized with some of the difficulties under
which these brethren labored, he did not think that
secession was the best way of curing the evils com-
plained of. The whole country had had a notable
illustration of the difficulties and dangers of secession,
and he did not think such an experiment should be
tried in the church. He took strong ground in favor
of fighting the battle out within the church, feeling
very sure that in the end all needed relief would be
obtained, and that thus, even the appearance of schism
would be avoided.

About the same time the movement in England,
and in this country, took place with regard to Bible
revision. Dr. Dyer took a lively interest in this
undertaking, and served on the American Finance
Committee for many years. In 1875 he was appointed
to accompany Bishop Lee, of Delaware, in his visit to
Mexico to inquire into the present condition and
future promise of the evangelistic work there going
on under the administration of the Rev. Henry C.
Riley, D.D. In this expedition he was accompanied
by his wife and daughter, and other friends. About
two months were thus occupied.

At the General Convention of 1877, the old Board
of Missions, consisting of several hundred members,
was abolished, and in its place a Board of Managers,
consisting, exclusive of the Bishops, of fifteen clergy-
men and fifteen laymen, was created. To this Board
the conduct of our general church missionary work,
5

66 SOME EECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

at home, and in foreign countries, was committed. Dr.
Dyer was appointed by the Convention a member of
this Board, and was assigned for duty in the Foreign
department.

In 1879 he was elected by the Convention of the
Diocese of New York as a trustee of the General
Theological Seminary. This was a great surprise to
him, and many of his friends. So pronounced had
been his views, particularly as to the former adminis-
tration of the institution, that it seemed incredible
the Convention of New York should elect hiin to
such a post. Some of his friends criticised rather
severely his acceptance of this position. But his reply
was that, having had no knowledge of, or anything to
do with the election, he felt it was his duty to avail
himself of the opportunity of doing what he could to
make the Seminary what it should be — general in the
spirit of its administration, as well as in its name.
Soon after his election he was made a member of the
Standing Committee, and was appointed on two special
committees having charge of a revision of the statutes,
as well as the constitution of the institution. To the
work of these committees he gave much attention, and
had the satisfaction of seeing their recommendations
adopted first by the Standing Committee, then by the
Board of Trustees, and finally by the General Conven-
tion in 1883. The character of some of the changes
made will be understood from the fact that the old
Board consisted of several hundred members, and
from all the dioceses, and was a constantly increasing

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 67

body, as the cliurch grew. The new Board, exchisive
of the bishops, consists of fifty members, of which
twenty-five are to be appointed by certain dioceses to
represent certain pecuniary endowments, and twenty-
five are to be appointed triennially by the General
Convention. Of this latter numl)er Dr. Dyer was
appointed a member by the General Convention of
1883, his name standing first on the list.

His only motive in accepting this trust, as well as
some others which had been committed to him, was to
recognize the great change which had taken place in
the general spirit and tone of the different parties in
the church, and to give expression to that catholicity
for which he had labored so long and so earnestly.
While his views of church polity remained substan-
tially the same as they had been throughout his life,
he thought it the part of wisdom and of a true liber-
ality, to adapt the policy of the church to the altered
state of sentiment and feeling which so generally pre-
vailed. Some there were who considered his course
somewhat inconsistent, but he regarded it as entirely
consistent with the principles he had always advocated,
and as the only honest and honorable course to pursue.

During Dr. Dyer's life in New York he performed
a large amount of clerical and other duty, outside of
the societies with which he was more especially con-
nected. Soon after his removal to the city he was
asked to take charge of the Church of the Incarna-
tion, which for a time had been a chapel of Grace
Church. The rector of the new parish, Dr, Harwood,

68 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

was obliged to leave his charge, and the city, on
account of illness. Dr. Dyer supplied the pulpit for
several months, including the Lenten and Easter sea-
son. During this time, he prepared and presented to
the Bishop quite a large class for confirmation. Im-
mediately upon the close of his services at the Incar-
nation, he was elected an assistant minister by the
vestry of St. George's Church. In this relation he
continued for five years. While the rector, the Rev.
Dr. Tyng, was absent in Europe, he occupied the pul-
pit for six months, and performed more or less paro-
chial duty. On several different occasions he had
charge of the pulpits at St. Mark's, the Ascension, the
Nativity, Calvary, Mediator, the Anthon Memorial;
and also of St. Ann's and Christ Church, Brooklyn ;
Trinity Church, Newark ; and Trinity, of Bergen
Point, IST. J. In this last-named parish he performed
many services during the period of its organization,
and on many occasions afterwards. At many differ-
ent times he was put in charge of Christ Cliurch, Bay
Ridge. During the absence of the rector, the Rev.
Mr. Aspinwall, in Europe, he, with his family, occu-
pied the rectory, and he had entire charge of the
parish, for more than a year. In all of the afore-
named churches he rendered services for from three
to nine months each. For more than a year he held
morning and afternoon services, and established a
Sunday-school in the chapel of the Rutgers Institute
on Fifth Avenue, near Forty-second street.

It was during the period of these services, that he

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY, 69

organized the Church of the Holy Trinity. On the
evenings of the Sundays, he officiated at the chapel of
the Rutgers Institute, he preached regularly in a
hall in West Forty-second street, at a mission started
by the Church of the Ascension. Among the labor-
ers at the time in the mission, were Bishop Whittaker,
of Nevada, and his wife. This mission grew into what
became known as the "Memorial Chapel," with its
chapel building and its settled pastors. He also per-
formed many services at another mission of the
Church of the Ascension, afterwards called the
Chapel of the Comforter. He had charge, at diifer-
ent times, of the services at the Church of the Medi-
ator, the building for which, on Lexington Avenue,
was purchased by his friends, Mr. Wolfe and Mrs.
Spencer.

Dr. Dyer rendered occasional services in many other
churches, chapels, and missions. As a rule, he offici-
ated from two to three times on Sundays, and very
frequently during the week.

Dr. Dyer was an active friend and worker in behalf
of St. Luke's Hospital from its commencement. He
was for many years on its Board of Management, and
was elected the president of the corporation, but
declined to accept the office, thinking it ought to be
held by a layman. He was also much interested in,
and cooperated with his revered friend, Dr. Muhlen-
berg, in establishing St. Johnland. He gave much
time and labor, in organizing '' The Home for Incur-
ables." For these three last-named institutions he

70 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

was instrumental in raising a large amount of
funds.

In 1872 or '73 he became a member of the Clerical
Club, of which the Rev. Dr. E. A. Washburn was the
chief originator. One of the outgrowths of the club
was the Church Congress. Dr. Dyer was active in
promoting the interests of both of tliese associations.
For a lonor time he acted as chairman of the club, and
presided at the breakfast given to Dean Stanley, during
his visit to this country. He was for a long period
the chairman of the Executive Committee of the
Congress, and its meetings were held at his office in
the Bible House. The interest he had in these asso-
ciations arose largely from the conviction he had that
their influence would be in the line of a broader and
deeper and, consequently, truer catholicity through-
out our church.

During Dr. Dyer's life in New York he was instru-
mental in raising large amounts of money for specific
oljjects — objects outside of missionary and other
causes, for which collections are taken in churches, or
by any other systematic methods. From the books of
record which he was in the habit of keeping, it would
appear that more than $500,000 were received, and dis-
bursed by him, for charitable purposes. The kind of
reputation which he thus acquired, gave him not a little
labor and trouble, and sometimes annoyance.

It will be seen, from the foregoing, that Dr. Dyer
has led an exceedingly busy and laborious life, and
that he has been associated with many leading eharac-

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 71

ters, and connected with many societies, both local
and general.

Several of the East Greenwich and North Kings-
town branches of the Dyer family left Rhode Island
and went to Vermont. The fame of that beautiful
mountain region had spread all over New England, in
the latter part of the last, and early part of the pres-
ent century, causing a large emigration from tlie
different States.

The following sketches are of other descendants of
William and Mary Dyre :

CHARLES VOLNEY DYEK.

A Sketch of His Long and Useful Career, Which is Closely Inter-
woven with the Early History of Chicago.

One more of the historic men who helped to make
Chicago, passed away April 24, 1878, in the death of
the venerable Dr. Charles Volney Dyer, one of the
oldest and best known pioneers of the city, who died of
paralysis at the residence of his son-in-law, Mr. Adolph
Heile (Mr. Heile married a daughter hy adoption)^ in
the town of Lake View. He was born at Clarendon,
Vt., on the 12th of June, 1808, and was, therefore,
rounding up the full measure of his three score and
ten, at his demise. His father, Daniel Dyer, was one
of those sturdy old Green Mountain men, who did
right gallant service in the days of the Revolution.
His mother was Susan, daughter of Gideon and sister

72 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

of Judge Abraham Olin, a woman of some note in her
time, and whose character may be judged from the
fact that she rode on horseback, unattended, a distance
of over a thousand miles to collect silverware and
gold beads from her friends for the purpose of secur-
ing the then enormous bail of $15,000 for the release
of one Matthew Lyon, of Kutland, incarcerated for
violation of the notorious sedition law.

For the first fifteen years of his life, the subject of
this sketch lived on his father's farm at home, passing
the uneventful days of a farmer boy, at work in
summer, and at the district school in winter. At
this age, however, he went to the Castleton (Vt.)
Academy, where he fitted for the higher course of
study which he subsequently pursued. He entered
college at Middlebury, from which he was graduated
with honors, in the medical course, in 1830.

He began the practice of medicine at Newark,
N. J., where he achieved enough local success to make
him ambitious for a broader field in which to try his
talents and exercise his industry. Like other aspiring
young men of his time, he cast longing eyes toward
the new West, and finally resolved to take the trip
and trust his fortunes with the destinies of Chicago,
where he arrived in August, 1835, He married Miss
Louisa M. Gifford, of Elgin, in 1837, a lady who
proved to be a woman of most sterling character, and
whose long life of usefulnesss has but recently closed
in death. The couple were blessed with six children,
three of whom survive — a daughter, wife of Mr., S,

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 73

E. Loring, and two sons, Charles, an artist, now in
Italy, and Louis, a professor in the Chicago Univer-
sity.

Dr. Dyer, upon his arrival, was appointed surgeon
of old Fort Dearborn, and from that tinne his practice
grew to such an extent, that in the course of a short
time he had means to invest. With the infinite faith in
the future that has characterized Chicago's pioneers,
he purcliased a large amount of real estate then out-
side of the corporation. Among other spots, once his
property, is the lot now occupied by the " First National
Bank Building." which he sold to the government for
the old post-office, for the sum of $46,000.

In 1854 he had acquired a competence, and retired
from the practice of his profession, determined to pass
the remainder of his life quietly, in the care of his
considerable property.

Dr. Dyer was a Democrat when he first came to
Chicago, and was elected by the Legislature to the
office of Judoje of the Probate Court of Cook count v,
in 1837. He soon after became a leading Abolitionist,
and supported Birney for President in 1840. There
were then very few Liberty party men, as they were
called, in Illinois ; but they had an " underground
railroad," and many of the passengers called upon Dr.
Dver and the late James H. Collins, who were under-
stood to be the proprietors, in passing through from
the South to the land of freedom, in Canada. While
these men stopped with the Doctor, he tried to make
them useful by setting them to work ; but he said

74 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

they were more fond of preaching, than cutting and
splitting wood. Dr. Dyer used to carry a large ebony,
gold-headed cane, now in the collection of the Chicago
Historical Society, which was presented to him by his
admirers, as it was said, for enlightening a slave-
catcher after the manner in which Minerva was freed
from the skull of Jupiter. The Doctor was very
proud of this token, which he regarded as Jacob's staff
for freedom. About the time he received this present,
say in 1846, a runaway slave was arrested and taken
before the late Justice Kercheval, a native of Ken-
tucky, who had issued a warrant for his arrest, under
the old fugitive slave law. Mr. Collins appeard for the
defence and moved to quash the writ, which was done.
While new papers were being prepared for the re-
arrest of the slave, Dr. Dyer was left alone with the
handcuffed slave for a moment. He struck off the
irons and bade the man jump for dear life. In a
moment the others returned and, on their inquiring
for the slave. Dr. Dyer said : " He has sunk into the
bosom of the community." At an anti-slavery con-
vention, held in Chicago, it was resolved to start an
abolition paper in Washington. Dr. Dyer was made
chairman of the committee, and selected Bailey as
editor, with Whittier and Phelps as assistants. This
was the beginning of the National Era.

In 1863 President Lincoln appointed him Judge of
the Mixed Court for the Suppression of the African
Slave Trade, an international tribunal, holding its ses-
sions in Sierra Leone. In consequence of this very

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 75

appropriate honor, he spent two years abroad, when
not in Africa, traveling quietly with his family in
Switzerland, Germany, and Italy. He chanced to be
in Rome when the sad news of the death of Lincoln
fell upon the world, and he was chosen to make an
address in memory of his dead friend. In religions
belief the Doctor was a follower of Swedenbor<r, hav-
ing embraced the tenets of the Scandinavian philoso-
pher in 1854. Soon after this, he and his wife, in connec-
tion with the Hon. and Mrs. J. Y, Scammon and Mr.
and Mrs. J. E. Wheelei-, founded the New Jerusalem
Society of this city. The great fire of 1871, and the
panic, greatly straitened Dr. Dyer's circumstances, and
his ready pecuniary means were nearly exhausted at
the time of his death. He was a very peculiar man,
sui generis in the fullest sense of that expression. No
one who has ever known him well, could ever forget him.
He loved a joke so well that, if he had had a chance,
like Hood, he would have made his pun even to his
last breath. It is impossible to do his varied charac-
ter justice within the limits of a brief notice like this,
but he will always be remembered in the Northwest
as one of those vigorous men who braved the perils
of the old frontier to build an empire upon a wilder-
ness, and who held the most profound political convic-
tions, not for personal glory, but that he might fulfil
the promise of American freedom, and raise a fallen
race to the fold of humanity.

Charles Gifford Dyer, son of Dr. Charles Volney

76 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

Dyer, was born in Chicago in 1845. Educated at
Lake Forest, until he entered the Naval Academy, then
at Newport. Shortly before finishing his studies there,
a strong inclination for painting, and the urgent desire
of his family, led him to resign. He then pursued the
study of art in Dresden and Munich, but at the end
of two years abandoned it and returned to Chicago.
After convincing himself that commerce was not his
vocation, by five years of repugnant labor, he again
devoted himself to the study of painting with such
persistency as his health, now greatly impaired by the
hardships and disgusts of his commercial venture, al-
lowed. To restore his health, he was obliged to travel
extensively in Italy, Egypt, and the East. Much of
his work in his profession was done at Munich, in
1876. He finally abandoned Munich for a time, and
studied to great advantage in the atelier of Jaquesson
de la Chevreuse at Paris. In the course of his study,
Venice and its great monuments attracted him, and
the best known work which he has done is to be found
in America, and connects itself with St. Mark's, Yen-
ice. A picture by him, entitled " A German Student,"
attracted much attention in the Royal Academy at
London, and at Munich, where he now has his atelier.
His works are scattered among private collections in
England and America.

Louis Dyer, son of Dr. Charles Yolney Dyer, was
born in Chicago in 1851. Educated in Chicago — at
the Chateau de Lancy, near Geneva, Switzerland — at

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 77

St. Amaud-Montroud (Cher) France — at the Univer-
sity of Munich, and finally graduated from Harvard
in 1874. After leaving Harvard L.D. he matriculat-
ed at Balliol College, Oxford, England, where he took
his degree in July, 1878, and was for one year Taylor-
ian scholar. In September of the same year, lie was
appointed tutor in Greek, by the corporation of Har-
vard College, Mass., and at the expiration of the term
of this appointment he was in 1881 appointed assist-
ant professor of Latin and Greek, at Harvard College,
where he now teaches. Professor Dyer not only
takes high rank as a scholar, but is also a poet and a
man of many accomplishments.

Olin Gideon Dyer, M.D., the youngest son of Gideon
Dyer, was born in Clarendon, Yt,, December 5th,
1822. From force of circumstances, he was unable to
pursue a classical course of study, but nevertheless he
succeeded in obtaining a good common school educa-
tion. At an early age, becoming interested in the
subject of medicine, he commenced to study under the
guidance and tuition of the late Dr. Moses H. Ranney,
who afterwards became distinguished in New York as
a specialist in mental disease, and graduated at the
Castleton Medical College — then one of the most
flourishing medical institutions of the day — with the
highest honors in June, 1844. He commenced the
practice of his profession during the succeeding year
in Lexington, Ohio, where he remained but one year,
when he returned to Yermont. Li August, 1846, he

78 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.-

married Annah Gaines Holt, of Pittsfield, and imme-
diately located in Salisbury, where he remained in
active practice for five years. At the expiration of this
time, to wit, September, 1851, at the earnest solicitation
of the late Dr. A. G. Dana, he removed to Brandon,
Yt., to become his associate in practice. Owing how-
ever to the ill health of Dr. Dana, the partnersliip
terminated in two years, by his voluntary withdrawal,
since which time, Dr. Dyer has occupied the field
against all competitors, with signal ability and success,
until the present time.

At the close of the war he received the unsolicit-
ed appointment of examining surgeon for pensions,
which ofiice he still holds. As a man. Dr. Dyer is held
in the highest esteem and is above reproach, while, as
a physician, he possesses in a rare degree that intuitive
knowledge of disease which has rendered him so re-
markably skilful and successful that he is regarded,
by all, as the leading medical man in Brandon and
vicinity.

The Eev. Palmer Dyer, an estimable Episcopal
clergyman, was a son of Edward Dyer, of Rutland, Yt.,
and was born October 24th, 1798. He graduated at
Union College in 1820, studied theology, and was ordain-
ed deacon by Bishop Brownell, of Connecticut. His
useful life came to an untimely end by drowning in
the Ausable River, August 1st, 1844, while he was en-
deavoring to save the life of a lady, who had slipped

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 79

on a narrow bridge, and was in great danger. She was
saved, and her noble rescuer perished.*^

There are many descendants of Charles Dyre, the
youngest son of William and Mary Dyre, living in
various parts of Rhode Isand, He had two daughters
and five sons : Mary, Eliza, Samuel, John, William,
Thomas, and Charles. He died in 1727. The follow-
ing sketches are of some of his descendants :

Benjamin Dyer, M.D., was born in Cranston, Rhode
Island, July 8th, 1768. His father was the son of
Charles Dyer, Jr., who married Abigail Williams,
daughter of Thomas Williams and great-granddaughter
of Roger Williams. Charles Dyer, 1st, of Providence
came from Dartmouth, Bristol county, Massachusetts,
and purchased the farm now known as " Cabbage Neck,"
Cranston, his deed being dated July 25, 1712. He
married Mary Lapham, and they had seven children.
The subject of this sketch received such education as
the schools of his day afforded, and at an early age en-
tered upon the study of medicine, under the direction
of Nathan Truman, who was then one of the prominent
physicians of Providence. Dr. Dyer engaged suc-
cessfully in the practice of medicine, and became as-
sociated with his brother, Charles Dyer, in the drug
business, in Providence, in whicb he continued until
his death. He pursued his profession with great assi-
duity for a period of twenty years, and then relinquished
his professional business, in order to devote his time to
mercantile and manufacturing pursuits, and to the im-

^ YD. . fP. / ' ,

80 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

provement of the extensive landed property belonging
to himself, and the firm of which he was a partner.
His apothecary business rapidly increased, and the firm
became large dealers in chemicals and dyestuffs, from
the sale of which a handsome fortune was realized. In
1816, in company with his brother Charles, Benjamin
Hoppin, Stephen Waterman and others, he became
interested in the purchase and improvement of lands
on the west side of the river, which then belonged to
the Field estate. They filled in and laid out Dyer,
Dorrance, Eddy and other streets in that vicinity, and
built wharves and store-houses, investing immense sums
of money in the enterprise, with great advantage to
the city, and serious loss to themselves. Dr. Dyer was
also one of the originators of the Providence Dye-
ing, Bleaching and Calendering Company and of the
Phoenix Iron Foundry. In 1824 he built the Dyer
block, on Broad street. He also built the steam-mill
on Eddy Street, now owned by Amos D. Smith &
Co. He owned a large tract of land In Cranston,
now Elmwood, between Broad and Greenwich streets,
where he had a fine country residence for a summer
home, and where he was interested in various agricult-
ural enterprises. At one time he devoted considera-
ble attention to the raising of currants for the manu-
facture of wine, and also to silk growing on his own
premises Some of his friends still remember seeing
him at an agricultural fair, dressed in a beautiful suit
of silk made from products of his own culture. His
energy and enterprising spirit, gave vigor and promised

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 81

success to every undertaking, and the deep interest
which he continually manifested in the public welfare,
caused him to be regarded as one of the most useful
citizens of his day. As a physician he was skilful and
devoted to his profession. He often sacrificed time,
money, and professional services for tlie relief of the
suffering poor. As an instance of his benevolence, it
is said that, during his professional career, he was
attending a poor woman who was dangerously ill with
typhoid fever, and seeing that she could not recover if
she remained in the unwholesome district where she
lived, he removed her to his own house, and cared for
her until her health was restored. He was noted for
his sociability, hospitality, and benevolence. Dr. Dyer
was always one of the first to promote all practical
charities and public institutions for good. Being of
modest and very retiring disposition, he never accepted
oflicial positions. He was a member of a sect known
as Sandemanians, of which it is said there is but one
society in this country, at Danbury, Connecticut.
The few members of the society in Providence met
with him and his family at his house, and he conducted
the religious services. At his death, which occurred
May 15, 1831, his family became members of the
Beneficent Congregational Church.

Hon. Elisha Dyer, ex-Governor of Rhode Island,

son of Elisha and Frances (Jones) Dyer, was born in

Providence, Rhode Island, July 20, 1811. He is a

lineal descendant of William and Mary Dyre. Their

6

82 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

grandson, John, married Freelove "Williams, a great-
granddaughter of Roger "Williams, and John Dyer's
son, Anthony, was the grandfather of the subject of
this sketch. Governor Dyer's mother was a daughter
of Esther Jones, a great-granddaughter of Mary Ber-
non, who was a daughter of Gabriel Bernon, a Hugue-
not, and a refugee from La Rochelle, France. Gabriel
Bernon was a merchant of an ancient and honorable
family of Rochelle, where he was born April 6, 1644.
Governor Dyer enjoyed superior educational advan-
tages. He received early and careful training in pri-
vate schools in Providence, spent a short time at
Benjamin Greene's boarding-school, at Black Hill, in
Plainfield, Connecticut, and was prepared for college
in Roswell C. Smith's school, in Providence, from
which he entered Brown University, September 7,
1825, at the age of fourteen. He gradated from that
institution September 2, 1829, and September 1st of
the same year entered the store of Elisha Dyer & Co.,
commission merchants. No. 5 West "Water street,
Providence, where he served in a clerical capacity
until April 1, 1831, when, Mr. Cary Dunn having re-
tired from the firm to engage in business in New
York, young Dyer became the junior partner. On
the 8th of October, 1838, he married Anna Jones
Hoppin, daughter of Thomas C. Hoppin, Esq. By
this marriage there were seven children, four of whom
— Elisha, Anna Jones, Gabriel Bernon, and William
Jones — are now living. In early life Governor Dyer
became identified with various public interests, and

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 83

has always taken an active part in promoting useful
enterprises and social reforms. On the 23d of Sep-
tember, 1833, he was tendered the appointment of
vice-consul of the two Sicilies, which honor he de-
clined. About this time he became a strong temper-
ance man, and by earnest persuasion prevailed on his
father to give up the sale of intoxicating liquors, then
a large and profitable part of their business, which
course, as was expected, proved very damaging to
their trade. This incident illustrates a strono; charac-
teristic of Governor Dyers life. He is a man of high
moral principle, and has always been true to his con-
victions. On the 30th of September, 1835, he became
a member of the Rhode Island Society for the En-
couragement of Domestic Industry, of which he sub-
sequently served as secretary, member of the Auditing
Committee, and president, and from 1859 to 1878 was
an honorary member, and a member of the Standing
Committee. Perhaps no one has done more for the
success of this society than Governor Dyer. He
worked earnestly, both at home and abroad, to pro-
mote its usefulness. He visited agricultural colleges
in Europe, and obtained valuable statistics and infor-
mation for the society in this country, while travelling
for his health. In 1835 his father built the Dyerville
Mill, in North Providence, and established the Dyer-
ville Manufacturing Company, for the manufacture
of cotton cloth. Mr. Dyer became the agent of this
company, in which position he served until the death
of his father, in 1854, when he became the sole owner

84 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

of the property, and continued the business until 1867,
when, on account of failing health, being obliged to
retire from business, he sold the mill. During his
business career, he was prominently identified with
many of the commercial interests of the city. For
many years he was a member and director of the
Providence Athenaeum, a director of the Providence
Young Men's Bible Society, of which he was president
in 1843, and was a member of the Providence Dis-
pensary, being among the most generous in caring for
the poor and unfortunate. He became a member of
the Rhode Island Historical Society in 1837, and was
one of the Board of Trustees, from September 10,
1845, until the abolishment of the same in 1848. In
politics Governor Dyer was formerly an old line
Whig, and has been identified with the Republican
party since its organization. He was a delegate to the
"Whig Convention at South Kingstown, Rhode Island,
October 31, 1839, and secretary of the same; and a
delegate to the Whig Jubilee and Festival at Niblo's,
Kew York, in November, 1839. He was chairman
and first vice-president of the Young Men's Whig
Convention at Providence, April 2, 1840, He was a
delegate to the Young Men's Whig Convention at
Baltimore, May 3, 1840, of which he was chairman,
and at that time addressed ten thousand people in
Monument Square, Baltimore. On the 27th of June,
1840, he was elected Adjutant-General of Rhode
Island, and re-elected for five successive years, in
which capacity he rendered very efficient service, being

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 85

on active duty under Governor Samuel W. King, con-
stantly, from April 3d to July 21st, 1842, liaving
almost entire charge of the plans and movements of
the State government during the '' Dorr War." He
served as a member of the Providence School Com-
mittee, from January 3, 1843, to June 6, 1854, when
he resigned. In 1851 he was nominated for Mayor
of Providence by the Temperance party, and defeated
by a small majority.

On the 4th of April, 1853, he was nominated for
State Senator, but not elected. He was president of
the Exchange Bank of Providence at the time it be-
came a national bank, and served as a director of the
same from 1837 to 1879 ; was elected a director of the
Union Bank of Providence, September 2, 1845. and
became a director of the Providence and Washington
Insurance Company in January, 1850, but soon after-
ward resigned. He was second vice-president of the
Rhode Island Art Association in 1853. In 1854 he
became an annual member of the United States Agri-
cultural Society, and in 1857 a life member and vice-
president of the same. He was also a member of the
Windham County (Connecticut) Agricultural Society.
In August, 1855, he became a member of the Ameri-
can Association of Arts and Sciences. He was a
member of the Butler Hospital Corporation, and trus-
tee of the same from January 23, 185G, to June 5,
1857, when he resigned ; was vice-president of the
Lake Erie Monument Association ; president of the
Young Men's Christian Association from May 12,

86 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

1857, to April 12, 1858 ; honorary member of Frank-
lin Lyceum in 1858, and of the Providence Association
of Mechanics and Manufacturers in 1860. On the 10th
of March, 1853, he was a delegate to the Whig State
Convention, and secretary of the same, and at the same
time was chairman of the Eastern District Convention.
In 1857 he was elected Governor of Rhode Island,
and re-elected in 1858, and declined in favor of Hon.
Thomas G. Turner, in May, 1859. Concerning his
administration as Governor, the Providence Post^ a
leading Democratic paper, which was opposed to him,
thus referred to him on the 7th of March, 1859 : " It
is proper to say that his retirement is wholly volun-
tary. It is not often that men thus voluntarily decline
an honorable office, and especially when the office may
be used as a stepping-stone to others of still greater
value and importance. . . . We have from the first
looked upon him as an honorable, high-minded oppo-
nent, and a straightforward, conscientious man ; and
candor compels us to say, that he has never failed to
reach the standard we set up for him. His abilities
have been equal to his official duties, and his integrity
has been equal, so far as we know or suspect, to every
assault which the intrigues of professed friends have
made upon it. He retires from an office which he did
not seek, wholly unscathed, and wholly uncontaminated
with the slime which too often clings to men who dis-
pense official favors." Governor Dyer was made a
director of Swan Point Cemetery, February 7, 1860.
He was one of the founders of the Providence Aid

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 87

Society, and was one of its board of managers from
November 16, 1855, to October 1, 1859. On the 8tli
of November, 1849, he was elected an honorary mem-
ber of the Rhode Island Horticultural Society, and one
of the Committee on Finance, in 1854. Governor
Dyer has taken a prominent part in military matters.
He joined the First Light Infantry Company, of Prov-
idence, in 1838, was made an honorary member of
the Newport Artillery Company in 1858, and an
honorary member of the Providence Marine Corps of
Artillery in 1859. During the civil war, he exhibited
in various ways his patriotic devotion to the cause of
liis country. On the 25th of September, 1861, he was
chosen captain of the Tenth Ward Drill Company, of
Providence, and May 26, 1862, his son Elisha having
been disabled and prevented from continuing in the
service, Governor Dyer felt it his duty to volunteer
himself, and accordingly went to Washington, and
served for three months as captain of Company B,
Tenth regiment of Kliode Island Volunteers. This
company was composed of about one hundred and
twenty-five students from Brown University and the
Providence Hidi School. President Sears, of the
University, allowed his students to enlist only on
condition that Governor Dyer should go with them.
He was a director of the Providence and Springfield
Railroad, and has been among the first in projecting
and promoting various railroad enterprises in the
State. He was the originator of the Providence and
Springfield Railroad, known at first as the Woonas-

88 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

quatucket Railroad, and was one of the first movers
in the proposed Ponagansett Railroad. He drew the
charter of the Narragansett Yalle}^ Railroad, and was
one of its corporators. In 1851, he was a director of the
Rhode Island Steamboat Company. The same year
he served on a committee sent to Washington to
secure the removal of the Providence post-oflfice. In
1852, he was elected a trustee of the Firemen's Asso-
ciation, Gaspe Company, No. 9. He was at one time
one of the directors of the Rhode Island Sportsman's
Club. In 1863, he was a delegate from the Rhode
Island Society for the Encouragement of Domestic
Industry, to the International Agricultural Exhibition
at Hamburg, in July of that year, and made an able
report of the same. He was vice-president of the
Rocer Williams Monument Association, and chairman
of the Executive Committee. On the 24th of Sep-
tember, 1869, he was elected president of the First
National Musical Congress, in Music Hall, Boston,
because of his musical ability, and his extensive ac-
quaintance in musical circles. He was Commissioner
for Rhode Island to the International Exhibition in
London, in May, 1871, and made a valuable report of
the same to the General Assembly. On the 20th of
March, 1873, he was appointed Honorary Commis-
sioner to the Vienna Exposition by President Grant,
and while there, rendered very important service to
the Commission, by reason of his large and varied
experience, and excellent taste and judgment. His
patriotic zeal led him to over-exert himself at the

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 89

Exposition, so mncli to the injury of his healtli, that
since then, he has been obliged to retire altogether
from public life and from business. He is a member
of the Protestant Episcopal Church, being, with his
family, connected with Grace Church, Providence,
On the 8th of June, 1852, he was a delegate to the
Diocesan Convention. Notwithstanding his active
business and public career, Governor Dyer has been
an invalid for the last thirty years, and very much of
his work has been done under the burden of infirmitv
and suffering. Eighteen times he has crossed the
Atlantic in search of health, and in 1854 visited
Egypt. He has been in all the places of note on the
usual routes of European travel, and, though travelling
for health, always had his eyes open and note-book in
hand, to glean whatever of value or interest he could
preserve for others. He is an effective speaker, and
has made a large number of public addresses on politi-
cal, educational, musical, and miscellaneous subjects.
In tlie Rhode Island Schoolmaster^ of November,
1861, he published a charming sketch of his school-day
experiences at "Black Hill," and in 1864, published
a book, entitled " A Summer's Travel to Find a Ger-
man Home." Governor Dyer is a man who might
have succeeded in almost any chosen line of work that
he had selected.

Colonel Elisha Dyer, Jr., chemist, son of Hon.
Elisha and Anna Jones (Hoppin) Dyer, was born in
Providence, Rhode Island, November 29, 1839. After

90 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

attending the public schools of the city, and the school
of Lyon and Frieze, he entered Brown University in
1856, taking a partial course. In 1858 he went to
Germany, and entered the University of Giessen,
where he graduated August 20, 1860, taking the de-
gree of Doctor of Philosophy, having pursued his
studies part of the time at Freiberg, in Saxony. He
returned home in the autumn of 1860, and at the com-
mencement of the civil war started for Washington,
D. C, April 18, 1861, as fourth sergeant of Captain
Tompkins's Battery of Rhode Island Light Artillery,
being one of the first volunteers enlisted in the
State, in response to the call for three months
men. While in charge of unloading the battery at
Easton, Pennsylvania, he received an injury which
nearly disabled him, and, persisting in continuing
with his company, was overcome by the heat a few
days later, and sent home by order of the surgeon.
He has never fully recovered from the shock and
exposure which he then experienced. In 1862 he was
re-elected lieutenant of the Marine Artillery, one of
the oldest and finest military organizations in the State,
having held a position on its stafi before his enlistment
for the war. In May of the same year the battery
again enlisted for three months, but lieutenant Dyer,
who had volunteered, was rejected from service by
the surgeon, on the ground of his previous disability.
Governor Sprague at once appointed him major, and,
with Lieutenant-Colonel George H. Smith, detailed
him to recruit and drill men for the battery, which he

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 91

continued to do for tlie remainder of tlie year. The
following year Grovernor James Y. Smith appointed
him colonel on his staff, in which position he served
for three years. In 1867, the Marine Artillery Com-
pany was reorganized, and Colonel Dyer entered its
ranks as corporal. In 1869 he was elected lieutenant-
colonel commanding the company, which office he
resigned after two years, and one year thereafter was
again made commander for another term of two years.
In 1875, under the new militia law, all the artillery of
the State was consolidated, and Colonel Dver was
elected to the command of the battalion. At the
same time, he was appointed a member of the Board
of Examiners of Officers of the State Militia, which
position he held until 1878. In 1877 he was elected
to the State Senate from North Kingstown, and during
his term of service was a member of the Judiciary
Committee, and chairman of the Committee on Militia.
In 1878 he was appointed, by a convention of militia
officers, one of the commission to report a new militia
law to the General Assembl3\ He M'as appointed by
Governor Van Zandt, and served as a member of the
Joint Select Committee on the reception of President
Hayes and cabinet, in 1877. He was also appointed
for five years a member of the State Board of Health,
for Washington county, in 1878. In 1881 he was
elected a Representative to the General Assembly,
from the Fourth ward of Providence. He has been
one of the directors of the Union Bank and of the
Union Savings Bank of Providence since 1870. For

92 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

several years he was one of the Finance Committee of
the Rhode Island Society for the Encouragement of
Domestic Industry. His chosen profession is that of
a chemist, and lie has been engaged from time to time
in various manufacturing interests, but of late years
has been very busily occupied with the care and
management of the estate of his father. He married
November 26, 1861, Nancy Anthony, daughter of
William and Mary B. (Anthony) Yiall, of Providence.
They have three sons — Elisha, George R., and H.
Anthony. Throughout his life Colonel Dyer has
labored earnestly for the best interests of mankind,
and enjoys the satisfaction of having done worthily
whatever he has undertaken.

[From the Manchester (England) Examiner and Times, May 9th,

1871.]

THE LATE MB. J. C. DYER.

In our obituary on Saturday, we announced the
death of one whose name, almost forgotten now, except
as matter of history, was, a generation ago, known as
one of the foremost in the ranks of the advanced Lib-
eral party in Lancashire. Mr. Joseph Chessborough
Dyer, of Burnage, who died at his son's residence at
Henbury, near Macclesfield, on Wednesday last, was
from 1816, when he settled in Manchester, till after
the settlement of the corn-law question, one of the
most prominent leaders of popular movements in the
district, besides holding an important place in the

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 93

scientific development of the cotton industry, which
has elevated Lancashire into the foremost rank among
English counties. Mr. Dyer's democratic leanings
may be said to have been hereditary, for his father was
a leader in the struggle for American independence,
and is said to have been one of the signatories of the
world-famous documents in which the rights of the
colonists were declared and asserted. The subject of
our sketch, however, was especially proud of his Eng-
lish descent, and being born in 1780, tliree years be-
fore the acknowledgment by England of the independ-
ence of the United States^ although the place of his
birth was Stonington, in Connecticut, he was able to
claim that he was "born an Englishman." Upon this
point, he was so interested that he obtained the opinion
of counsel (Scarletts), which was distinctly in his favor.
He received the usual education of his class; and on
attaining manhood, established himself in Boston, as a
merchant importing British goods, and in that capac-
ity frequently visited England, in the early part of
the century. In 1811, in consequence of the disturb-
ances between the mother country and the States,
Jefferson's non-intercourse act was passed, with the
effect of ruining the American trade in English goods.
Mr. Dyer, thereupon, removed at once to London. In
1811, he married Miss Eliza Jones, daughter of Mr.
Somersett Jones, of Gower street, London, and Brand
House, Somersetshire, a nephew of Sir William Jones,
the well known Indian scholar. After a brief resi-
dence in Birmingham, where he projected the North

94 SOME RECORDS OF THE DTER FAMILY.

American Review, and, along with Mr. Tudor, pre-
pared the first three numbers of the magazine, he
settled in Manchester, and in this town or its im-
mediate neighborhood, he lived till 1864. For two
years afterwards he lived with his son, Mr. F. N.
Dyer, at Whaley Bridge, and since then, till the time
of his death, at that gentleman's seat at Hen bury. Mr.
Dyer, shortly after his settlement in Manchester, by the
adaptation of several useful American inventions, gave a
great impetus to the cotton trade, which was then rapidly
developing in this district. Wheeler, in his " History of
Manchester," after speaking of the inventions of the
mule and throstle spinning, says : " Two other important
inventions have yet to be named — the fly frame, intro-
duced about 1817, which supersedes the roving frame
for middle and lower numbers (of yarns) ; and the tube
frame, which roves much faster than fly, but only for
low numbers. Mr. Dyer, of this town, introduced
them from America, and in 1825 and 1829 took out
patents." So rapidly was the importance of these in-
ventions recognized, that it is said that in a few years
nearly 1,000 improved frames were in operation in the
mills of the cotton district. Mr. Dyer was the founder
of one of the largest firms of machinists in Manchester.
Mr. Dyer was a director of the Bank of Manchester,
in which he was a considerable shareholder. By its
stoppage, during the joint-stock bank panic between
1836 and 1842, he suffered severe pecuniary losses.
Even while engaged in business pursuits, Mr. Dyer was
an active politician ; but after his retirement, many of

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 95

his best years were given up almost wholly to the ad-
vancement of the political and social condition of the
people. His public services embraced a very wide
range. In 1824 he was one of the projectors of the
Royal Institution of Manchester, and a liberal sub-
scriber. He was, also, about the same time, one of
the first to subscribe towards the formation of the
Manchester Mechanics' Institute. He was a moving
spirit in the counsels of those advanced Radicals,
through whose action, chiefly, Manchester obtained the
position of a borough, returning two members under
the reform bill of 1832, and subsequently he was
equally active in the movement for obtaining a charter
of incorporation for the city. The prominent position
which, at this time, Mr. Dyer held in Manchester poli-
tics may be judged of from the fact that in 1830, along
with Mr. Mark Phillips (subsequently one of the first
members for Manchester) and Mr. Alexander Kay, he
was nominated at a public meeting in the Town Hall,
to bear the congratulations of the citizens to the people
of Paris, on the success of the revolution of July. The
Manchester delegates were received at the Hotel de
Yille, and a public banquet was given in their honor.
Mr. Dyer was chairman of the Manchester branch of
the old Reform League, and took a leading part in all
the agitations preceding the passage of the act of 1832.
The influence which Mr. Dyer then obtained, was used
to good purpose at the flrst election for the new-created
borough. Mr. C. Poulett Thompson, who was nomi-
nated along with Mr. Mark Philips as a Liberal candi-

96 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

date, being unable, in consequence of his candidature
for Dover, to attend personally to his canvass here, was
represented by Mr. Dyer, who had the satisfaction of
returning his candidate. Mr. Dyer was one of the
first, and remained to the successful close of its labors,
one of the leading members of the Anti-Corn-Law
League. He also took an active part in most of the
public measures which engaged attention from 1820 to
1850. Shortly after the latter date, being now more
than TO years old, he retired, almost entirely, from
participation in public business, in which, however, he
preserved till the last a keen interest. In 1818, Mr.
Dyer was elected a member of the Manchester Liter-
ary and Philosophical Society, of which he was for
many years a vice-president. He contributed many
papers, which occupy an honored place in its records,
and is notable as the only member who was ever al-
lowed to address the society on a semi-political ques-
tion. This was in a paper written during the height
of the corn-law agitation, to combat the notion, founded
on Goldsmith's couplet, that the growth of large towns
and the increase of wealth indicated the decay of the
nation. As a pamphleteer, Mr. Dyer was, also, very
prolific, and many of his papers on the political and
social questions of his time were of more than passing
value. We are informed that he has left behind him,
in manuscript, a History of his Own Times, a treatise
on health and longevity, and an autobiography extend-
ing to the period of his marriage. The funeral took
place on Saturday, and in accordance with Mr. Dyer's

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 97

express desire, frequently reiterated during his last
illness, was strictly private. His remains were interred
in Rusholme Road Cemetery.

In the year 1632, Thomas Dyer, and his wife, arrived
in Boston, from Shepton Mallett, in Somersetshire,
England. Thomas Dyer married Agnes Reed, wlio
was born in Butley, two miles from the beautiful
town of Glastonbury, in Somersetshire. Shepton
Mallett is a large manufacturing town ; it carries on
an extensive manufactory of knit stockings and woolen
goods. These, with its market-cross, erected in 1500 —
a curious structure, supported by columns and adorned
with sculpture — are its principal attractions. Thomas
Dyer was a cloth manufacturer; but whether he pur-
sued that line of business in this country, I have not
been able to ascertain. He settled in Weymouth, in
Massachusetts. His wife died in 1667, leaving eight
children, five sons and three daughters. He was made
freeman in 1644 — was chosen Representative in 1646,
— in 1650 was appointed deacon of the church. He
died in 16Y6, leaving a " good estate." From him are
descended very many of the name in this country, but it
is not known that there was any relationship between
him and William Dyre. Prominent among his de-
scendants, is Colonel Eliphalet Dyer of Wyndham,
Connecticut, who was the great-grandson of Thomas
Dyer. He was born September 14th, 1721, and mar-
ried Huldah Bowen, daughter of Colonel Jabez Bowen.
of Providence, Rhode Island. He commenced the
7

98 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

practice of law when nineteen years of age, and gradu-
ated at Yale College in 1740, where in 1787 he was made
LL.D. ; from 1745 to 1762 he was representative to
the General Court. He commanded a Connecticut
regiment during the French war — was elected a mem-
ber of the council in 1762 and a delegate to the Stamp
Act Congress in 1765 — went to England, in 1763, as
agent of the Susquehanna Company, and was also a
delegate to Congress in 1774, and, excepting 1779, held
during the war, a seat in that body. He had much to
do with framing the constitution of the United States.
He was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court in
1765, and from 1789 to 1793 was chief justice. He died
in May, 1807. His daughter Amelia married Colonel
Joseph Trumbull, oldest son of Governor Trumbull.
The following ludicrous story is often alluded to :

" Rome had her geese and Pomfret her wolf, but
Windham had her frogs. Here on the historic green,
in sight of the pond where it occui-red, the episode of
the frogs assumes a very different aspect from that
given it by the Rev. Hugh Peters in his humorous
' History of Connecticut.' It was on the night of June
17, 1754, that the gruesome, grotesque circumstance
occurred. The green was as fresh and vivid in coloring,
the elms arched as gracefully, the stream from the
pond broke over its barriers, and flowed away under
the rustic bridge as murinuringly then, as now, but in
the minds of the people there was sad foreboding, and
expectation of the momentary outbreak of a savage foe.
It was the eve of one of the bloodiest of the French

SOME KECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 99

and Indian wars. Windliam county had special
reason for fearing vengeance, since, in acquiring some
parts of her recent Susquehanna purchase, the Indians
were known to have been aggrieved iind wronged.
Goodman White's negro slave. Pomp, was the first to
experience the terrors of the night. Having lingered
until a late hour beside a dusky Pliyllis, in one of the
outlying farmhouses, he at length started to return to the
village, a Youdoo charm about his neck, and a horse-
shoe in his hand, as a protection against spooks. Tlie
night was still, misty, and intensely dark. Pomp
went his way whistling, his fears equally divided be-
tween the insubstantial ghost, and the more material
Mohawk. He had reached the green, when all at once
a dire uproar burst upon him. Koar, bellow, gabble,
shriek, splash, gurgle were combined, and the sounds
came from everywhere at once — above, below, on this-
side and that, from field, and pond, and forest. To say
that Pomp fled, and shrieked, and prayed, conveys no
idea of the celerity of his flight, nor the intensity of his
groans and supplications. But before he could reach
the centre of the green, chamber windows were thrown
open, nightcapped heads were thrust forth, and femi-
nine shrieks, and the strong cries of men added to the
uproar : many swooned ; the stronger fled as they were
to the village green, where they huddled in a little
group, every eye upturned to see through the murky
gloom the glory of the opening heavens, and the awful
visage of the descending Judge. In that company, not
one but believed that the last great day was at hand.

100 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

But the levin-stroke of judgment failed to come, and
soon the thought came to the stronger minds, that the
uproar was of terrestrial origin, and attributable to savage
foes. Peering into the darkness, and shrinking from
the possible deadl}^ tomahawk, they waited and
watched. At length they heard, amid the general
babel, distinct articulations which gradually resolved
themselves into the names of two of Windham's most
prominent citizens — Colonel Dyer, the agent, and
Squire Elderkin, one of the trustees of the Susque-
hanna Company. ' We'll have Colonel Dyer ! We'll
have Colonel Dyer ! We'll have Colonel Dyer ! ' the
mysterious voices declared ; and ' Elderkin too ! '
' Elderkin too ! ' ' Elderkin too ! ' an equally mysterious
chorus repeated ; not a person but trembled for the
fate of those two strong pillars of the commonwealth.
The words ' Tete,' ' Tete,' which followed, were con-
strued as meaning that the investing force was dis-
posed to treat, but as nothing could be done in the
darkness, the affrighted people contented themselves
with placing a line of sentries around the town, and
then withdrew to their homes. In the morning no
savage army appeared, nor was any cause of the strange
voices of the night discoverable, and the occurrence
would, no doubt, have been added to the long list of
supernatural events detailed in Cotton Mather's
Wonder-Book, had not Pomp, watering his master's
horses at the pond next morning, discovered multitudes
of frogs lying dead, and blackened in the water. Then
it came as a revelation to the people of Windham, that

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 101

an army of frogs, smitten with some deadly epidemic,
or, perhaps attacked by some invading army, had pro-
duced the afiirighting sounds. The revulsion of feel-
ing, it is said, was great ; the whole village assumed a
sheepish air. Somehow, too, the story got abroad, and
brought a ripple of laughter to the face of the whole
county. Everybody was disposed to regard the ex-
perience of that terrible night as a rich joke. Gibes,
puns, lampoons, ditties, proverbs were rained on the
unfortunate Windhamites. Even the clergymen poked
fun, as the following letter from the Rev. Mr. Stiles,
of Woodstock, to his nephew, abundantly shows. It
is dated at Woodstock, July 9, 1754, and proceeds :

'• ' If the late tragical tidings from Windham deserve
credit, as doubtless they do, it will then concern the
gentlemen of your Jurispritian order to be fortified
against the croaks of Tauranean legions — legions terri-
ble as the very wreck of matter and the crash of
worlds. Antiquity relates that the elephant fears the
mouse ; a herd trembles at the crowing of a cock ; but
pray whence is it that the croaking of a bull-frog
should so Belthazzarize a lawver ? How Dyerful the
alarm made by these audacious long-winded croakers !
I hope, sir, from the Dyerful reports from the frog-
pond you will gain some instruction, as well as from
the reports of my Lord Coke.' "

Even the aid of the Muses was invoked on this oc-
casion, and a poem thirty verses long was written to
describe the

" Fright -which happen'd one night,
Caused by the bull-frog nation."

102 SOME RECOKDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

The following are two of the verses

" Lawyer Lucifer called up his crew, —
Dyer and Elderkin, you must come too;
Old Col. Dyer, you know well enough,
He had an old negro, his name was Cuflf.

" 'Now, Massa,' says Cuflf, ' I'm now glad enough
For what little comfort I have ;
I make it, no doubt, my time is just out,
No longer shall I be a slave.' "

The five following articles are of interest to all
bearing the name of Dyer. Much of the information
contained in them is taken from Alexander Chalmers'
Biographical Dictionary — London 1813.

Sir James Dyer, Dier, or Dyre, an eminent Eng-
lish lawyer, was descended from an ancient and hon-
orable family in Somersetshire, of the same family
with Sir Edward Dyer, the poet, who was fourth in
descent from Sir James Dver's o-reat-grandfather.
Sir James was the second son of Richard Dyer, Esq.,
of Wincalton and Round Hill, in Somersetshire, at
the latter of which places he was born about the year
1512. Wood says he was a commoner of Broadgate
Hall (now Pembroke College), Oxford, and that he
left it without taking a degree, probably about 1530,
when he went to the Middle Temple. Here he

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 103

appears to have rendered himself eonspieuoiis for
learning and talents, as in 1552 he performed the
office of autumnal reader to that society — a distinction
which was at tliat time conferred only upon such as
were eminent in their profession. He had, on May
lOtli preceding, been called to the degree of serjeant-
at-law, and in the following November his abilities
wei'e rewarded with the post of King's Serjeant. On
the meeting of the last Parliament of Edward YI.,
1552-3, Dyer was chosen Speaker of the House of
Commons, (that office being considered in those days
as peculiarly appropriate to lawyers of eminence,)
and in this capacity, on Saturday afternoon, March 4,
made "an ornate oration before the King:." This is
the only particular concerning this short Parliament,
which sat only for one month, and the dissolution of
which was quickly followed by the death of that
excellent young Prince, whose successor, though in
most respects she pursued measures totally opposite to
those of his reign, continued the royal favor to Dj-er,
whom, October 19, 1553, she appointed one of her
Serjeants. In this office his name appears as one of
the commissioners on the singular trial of Sir Nicholas
Throckmorton, when his jury, with a freedom rarely
exercised in that unhappy period, ventured to acquit
the prisoner. Sir James's behavior on that occasion
was not disgraced by any servile compliances with the
views of the court ; yet his regard for his own char-
acter was tempered with so much discretion as not
to occasion an}' diminution of her Majesty's protec-

104 SOME EECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

tion, for on May 20, 1557, being at that time Re-
corder of Cambridge and a knight, he was appointed
a judge of the Common Pleas, whence, on April 23d
of the next year, he was promoted to the Queen's
Bench, where he sat (though of the Reformed religion)
during the remainder of this reign as a puisne Judge.
In the first year of Queen Elizabeth, on November
18, 1559, he returned to the Common Pleas, of which
he was appointed in the following January chief
justice — an office the functions of which he con-
tinued to exercise for more than twenty years, with
eminent integrity, firmness, and ability. In the course
of this long period, we find him assisting at the trial
of Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk ; on which
occasion he opposed that unfortunate nobleman's
petition to have a counsel assigned him, and with
propriety, as the rigorous complexion of the law was
at that time — it having been reserved for the milder
spirit of a later age, to indulge prisoners in his un-
happy situation with that privilege. In 1574 he
exhibited a singular proof of probity, courage and
talents, in the spirit with wliich he opposed the
attempt of Sir John Conway to oppress a poor widow
of Warwickshire, (that county being included in the
circuit which he usually went,) by forcibly keeping
possession of her farm ; and in his reply to the articles
preferred against him to the Privy Council, by certain
justices of the peace, whom he had severely repre-
hended in public, at the assizes, for partiality and
negligence in permitting so gross a violation of the

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 105

law, and whom he had caused to be indicted for the
same. What was the end of the dispute his biog-
rapher has not been able to discover, but thinks it
reasonable to conclude that the firmness and ability of
Dyer prevailed over the malice of his adversaries, as
he experienced no diminution of the Queen's favor,
but continued in the full exercise of his judicial func-
tions, without any other memorable transaction that is
known, down to his death, which happened at his seat
of Great Stoughton (an estate purchased by himself),
in the county of Huntingdon, March 24, 15S2, at the
age of seventy. Leaving no issue by his wife Mar-
garet, daughter of Sir Maurice a Barrow, of Hamp-
shire, a relict of the celebrated philologist, Sir Thomas
Elyot, his estates at Stoughton and elsewhere, with
his mansion-house at Charter House Church-yard,
descended to Sir Richard Dyer, grandson of his elder
brother, John. His will commences thus : " In the
name of the Father, the Sonne, and the Holy Ghost,
Amen. I, James Dyer, knight, chief justice of the
Common Pleas, considering with myself the incer-
tentye of this vaine and transitorye life, and the sud-
daine callinge awaie of us from the same, by deathe,
and for the avoidinge of discorde and strife, that com-
monlie I see to ensue after the deathe of such as die
intestate, about the trashe and pelfrye of this wicked
worlde, being of perfect healthe and memorye (God
be thanked), doe ordeyne and make this writinge
withe myne owne hande, this my last will and testa-
ment, in manner and forme followinge."

106 SOME RECOKDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

He was buried at Stonghton ; in the venerable
church of which place is a handsome monument
erected to his memory, with the following inscrip-
tions :

Here lieth Sir James Deyer, Knight, sometimes Lord Chief
Justice of the Common Pleas — and Dame Margaret, his wife :
which Dame Margaret was here interr'd the six and twentieth
day of August, 1560, and the said Sir James, upon the five and
twentieth of March, 1582.

Deyero tumulum quid statuis, Nepos ?

Qui vivit volitaque ora per omnium,

Exegit monumenta ipse perennia :

In queis spirat adhuc : spirat in his themis

Libertas, Pietas, Munificentia.

En decreta, libros, vitam, obitum, senis!

Eternas statuas! Vivat in his themis

Libertas, Pietas, Munificentia.

Eternas statuas lias statuit sibi :

Eteruis statuis credite marmora!

Patruo majori charissimo, ejusque

Conjugi amantissimse posuit Miles.

RiCHARDus Deyer.

I am indebted to Professor Louis Dyer, of Harvard
University, Cambridge, Mass., for a metrical transla-
tion of the Latin epitaph, which contains the spirit and
significance of the original, admirably reproduced :

A tomb for Dyer, thine uncle, wherefore raise ?
"Who lives, and quickened in the words men use
Hath linked his memory to undying praise;
While speech is speech his life he cannot lose,
Whose righteousness must always be proclaimed
When Largess, Freedom, Piety are named.

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 107

If thou his lasting monument wouldst see,

His thoughts, his deeds, his life and death revere —

And bid thy soul remember it is he

When Justice, Freedom, Piety appear ;

These he his deathless counterparts hath made,

Not here, in marble mimicry, portrayed.

Unto his very dear great Uncle, and that Uncle's very loving
■wife, the present Knight hath raised this tomb.

RiCHAKD Dyer.

Sir James Dyer was the author of a large book of
Reports, which were published after his decease, and
have been highly esteemed for their succinctness and
solidity. They were first printed in 1585, and have
gone through many editions. That of 1688 is en-
riched by the marginal notes and references of Lord
Chief Justice Treby, and bears the following title,
literally translated from the French : " Reports of
several select matters and resolutions of the reverend
Judges and Sages of the Law, &c." That eminent
lawyer. Sir Edward Coke, recommends to all students
in the law these Reports, which he calls " the sum-
mary and fruitful observations of that famous and
most reverend Judge and Sage of the Law, Sir James
Dyer." They are, indeed, a valuable treasure to the
profession. The best edition is that by John Yaillant,
Esq., 1794, 3 vols., 8vo, with the life of the author
from an original manuscript in the Inner Temple
Library. It is entitled " Reports of cases in the
reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI., Queen Mary and
Queen Elizabeth. Taken and collected by Sir James

108 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

Dver, Knio-lit — some time Justice of the Common
Pleas." On tlie Inner Temple manuscripts of Law
Reports, he signs his name James Dier. He left
behind him, also, " A Reading upon the Statute of 32
Henry YIII., cap. 1, of Wills ; and upon the 34th and
35th Henry YIII., cap. 5, for the explanation of the
Statute," printed at London in 1648, 4to. By his
will he bequeathed to his nephew, Richard Farwell,
one of the editors of the " Reports," all his books of
the law, " as well abridgments and reports of myne
owne handwritinge, as other of the lawe," which
expression seems to countenance the assertion of Cole,
that he made an " Abridgment of the Law," but, as
nothinor of the kind has been discovered, it seems
more reasonable to conclude that he wrote nothing
except these " Reports," and the " Reading " above
mentioned. By these performances, and by the
services he did his country, he came fully up to the
character which Camden has given him, of being
ever distinguished by an equal and calm disposition,
which rendered him in all cases a most upright judge,
— as his penetration and learning made him a fit
interpreter of the laws of his country. Not long
after his death a book was published, entitled "A
Remembrance of the Precious Yertues of the Right
Honourable and Reverend Judge, Sir James Dier,
Knight, Lord Cheefe Justice of the Common Pleas,
who diseased at Great Stawghton, in Huntingdonshire,
the 24th of Marche, Anno 1582. The reporte of
George Whetstone, Gent. Imprinted at London by

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 100

John Cliarlewood, 4to. Dedicated to Sir Thomas
Bromley, Lord Chancellor."

Collinson, in his " History of Somersetshire," says :
"The manor and borough of Wincanton (formerly
Wincaleton, from the River Cale, which rises near)
has several hamlets on the outskirts. One is Barrow
Common. Lands in the last-mentioned hamlet be-
longed to the priorj' of Taunton ; after the dissolution
of which, these lands, with the manor of Round Hill
and the rectory of Wincanton, were sold to William
Lord Stourton, whose son, Charles Lord Stourton,
being attainted, the said lands came again to the
Crown, and were sold in 1557, at thirty years' pur-
chase, to John DierT This was, undoubtedly, the
elder brother of Sir James Dier.

Yaillant, in alluding to the various ways of spell-
ing the name, says that " even at a much later period,
orthography was very little attended to. The disputes
between the commentators on Shakspeare, about our
great poet's mode of writing his own name, are well
known. It is not probable that Sir James Dyer's
name was ever spelled Deyer, except upon his monu-
ment, where it was necessary, for the proper pronun-
ciation of the Latin, to introduce an additional e.

One very important labor of Sir James Dyer was
the union of Wales with England, by the abolition of
the feudal jurisdiction of the eldest son of the King,
under whose rule, fearful oppression was committed
on the commonalty. Sir James rendered himself so
beloved in Wales, by the accomplishment of the union,

110 SOME RECOKDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

that, even to this day, " The Goat and Eose," hi&
crest, is a common inn sign all over the principality.
The portrait of Sir James Dyer is to be seen in the
picture gallery of Chirk Castle, Denbighshire, near
the beautiful vale of Llangollen, North "Wales.

Sir Edward Dyer, a poet of the Elizabethan age,
was of the same family with those of his name in
Somersetshire, and was born, probably, about 1540.
He was educated at Oxford, either in Balliol College
or Broadgate Hall, where he discovered a propensity
to poetry and polite literature, but left it without a
degree, and travelled abroad. On his return, having
the character of a well bred man, he was taken into
the service of the court. He now obtained consider-
able celebrity as a poet, and was a contributor
to the " Paradyce of Dainty Devyses" and " En-
gland's Helicon." He wrote " The Prayse of
Nothing. Imprinted in London in Fleete - streate,
beneath the Conduite, at the signe of St. John
the Evangelist, by H. Jackson, 1585. 4to, black
letter 15 leaves." Queen Elizabeth had a great
respect for his abilities, and employed him in
several embassies, particularly to Denmark in 1589 ;
and on his return from thence conferred on him the
Chancellorship of the Garter, on the death of Sir John
"Wolley, 1596, and at the same time she knighted him ;
but, like other courtiers, he occasionally suffered by
her caprices. He was, at one time, reconciled to her,

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. Ill

by her Majesty's being taught to believe tliat he was
sinking to the grave, under the weight of her dis-
pleasure. Sir Edward partook of the credulity of the
times, studied chemistry, and was thought to be a
Kosicrucian. He was, at least, a dupe to the famous
astrologers, Dr. Dee and Edward Kelly, of whom he
has recorded that in Bohemia he saw them put base
metal in a crucible, and after it was set on fire, and
stirred with a stick of wood, it came forth, in great
proportion, pure gold. He wrote pastoral odes and
madrigals, some of which are in " England's Helicon,"
first published at the close of Queen Elizabeth's reign,
and lately republished in the " Bibliographer.'' He
wrote, also, a "Description of Friendship," a poem in
the Ashmolean Museum, where, also, from Aubrey's
manuscript, we learn that he spent an estate of £4,000
a year. There is a letter of his to Sir Christopher
Hatton, dated October 9, 1572, in the Plarleiun MS.,
and another to the Earl of Leicester, dated Mav 22,
1586, in the Cottonian Collection, and some of his
unpublished verses are in a MS. collection formerly
belonging to Dr. Rawlinson, now in the Bodleian
Library. There are two sonnets of Sir Edward
Dyer's at the end of Sydney's '' Arcadia," 1598,
which are signed C. D. At the funeral of Sir Philip
Sydney, he was one of the pall-bearers.

Sir Edward was an intimate friend of Sir Martin
Frobisher, the celebrated English navigator ; and with
him, Sir Walter Raleigh, and another naval captain,
carried the canopy over Queen Elizabeth, when she

112 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

went to St. Paul's, to return thanks for the defeat of
the Invincible Armada.

John Dyer, an English poet, was born in 1700, the
second son of Robert Dyer, of Aberglasney, in Caer-
marthenshire, a solicitor of great capacity and note. He
passed through Westminster school, under the care of
Dr. Freind, and was then called home, to be instructed
in his father's profession. His genius, however, led
him a different way, for, besides his early taste for po-
etry, having a passion no less strong for the arts of
design, he determined to make painting his profession.
"With this view, having studied awhile under his master,
he became, as he tells his friend, an itinerant painter,
and wandered about South Wales, and the parts adja-
cent, and about 1727 printed " Grongar Hill," a poem
which Dr. Johnson says " is not verj' accurately writ-
ten ; but the scenes which it displays are so pleasing,
the images which they raise, so welcome to the mind,
and the reflections of the writer so consonant to the
general sense or experience of mankind, that when it
is once read, it will be read again." Being probably
unsatisfied with his own proficiency, he made the tour
of Italy, where, besides the usual study of the remains
of antiquity and the works of the great masters, he fre-
quently spent whole days in the country about Rome
and Florence, sketching those picturesque prospects,
with facility, and spirit. Images from hence naturally
transferred themselves into his poetical compositions ;

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAillLY. 113

the pi-incijDiil beauties of the " Ruins of Rome" are,
perhaps, of this kind, and the various landscapes in the
"Fleece," have been particularly admired. On his re-
turn to England in 1740, he published the " Ruins of
Rome," but soon found that he could not relish a town
life, nor submit to the assiduity required in his profes-
sion. His talent, indeed, was rather for sketching than
finishing, so he contentedly sat down in the country
with his little fortune, painting now and then a por-
trait or a landscape, as his fancy led hira. As his turn
of mind was rather serious, and his conduct and be-
havior always irreproachable, he was advised by his
friends to enter into orders ; and it is presumed, though
his education had not been regular, that he found no
difficulty in obtaining them. He was ordained by the
Bishop of Lincoln, and had a law degree conferred
upon him. About the same time he married a lady of
Coleshill, named Ensor, "whose grandmother," says
he, " was a Shakspeare, descended from a brother of
everybody's Shakspeare." His ecclesiastical provision
was a long time but slender. His first patron, Mr.
Harper, gave him, in 1741, Calthorp, in Leicestershire,
of £80 a year, on which he lived ten years, and in
April, 1757, exchanged it for Belchford, in Lincoln-
shire, of £75, which was given him by Lord Chancellor
Hardwick, on the recommendation of a friend to virtue
and the muses, Daniel Wray, Esq., one of the deputy
tellers of the Exchequer, and a curator of the British
Museum. For this gentleman Mr. Dyer seems to have
entertained the sincerest regard. Mr. Dyer calls " good
8

114 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

Mr. Edwards," author of the " Canons of Criticism,"
his particular friend, and in Savage's poems are two
epistles to Dyer ; one of them in answer to the beauti-
ful little poem which begins :

"Have my friends in the town, in the gay busy town,
Forgot such a man as John Dyer?"

His condition now began to mend. In the year
1752 Sir John Heathcote gave him Coningsby, of £140
a year, and in 1Y56, when he was LL.B., without any
solicitation of his own, obtained for him, from the Chan-
cellor, Kirkby-on-Bane, of £110. " I was glad of this,"
says Mr. Dyer in 1756, " on account of its nearness to me,
though I think myself a loser by the exchange through
the expense of the seal, dispensations, journeys, etc., and
the charge of an old house, half of which I am going to
pull down." The house, which is a very good one, OM'es
much of its improvement to Mr. Dyer. His study, a
little room with white walls, ascended by two steps,
had a handsome window to the church-yard, M'hich he
stopped up, and opened a less, that gave him a full view
of the fine church and castle at Gateshall, about a mile
off, and of the road leading to it. He also improved
the garden. In May, 1757, he was employed in rebuild-
ing a large barn, which a late wind had blown down,
and gathering materials for rebuilding above half the
parsonage house at Kirby. " These," he says, " some
years ago, I should have called trifles, but the evil days
are come, and the lightest thing, even the grasshopper,
is a burden upon the shoulders of the old and sickly."

SOME KECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 115

He had then just published " The Fleece," his greatest
poetical work, of which Dr. Johnson relates this ludi-
crous story : " Dodsley, the bookseller, was one day men-
tioning it to a critical visitor, with more expectation of
success, than the other could easily admit. In the con-
versation the author's age was asked, and being repre-
sented as advanced in life, ' he will,' said the critic, ' be
buried in woollen.'" He did not, indeed, long outlive
that publication, nor long enjoy the increase of his
preferments, for, a consumptive disorder, with which
he had long struggled, carried him oflE at length, July
24, 1758.

Mr. Gough, who visited Coningsby, September 5,
1782, could find no memorial to him in the church.
Mrs. Dyer, on her husband's decease, retired to her
friends in Caermarthenshire. In 1756 they had four
children living — three girls and a boy. Of these, Sa-
rah died single. The son, a youth of the most amiable
disposition, heir to his father's truly classical taste and
to his uncle's estate of £300 or £400 a year in Suffolk,
devoted the principal part of his time to travelling,
and died in London, as he was preparing to set out
on a tour to Italy in April, 1782, at the age of 32.
This young gentleman's fortune was divided between
two surviving sisters — one of them married to Alder-
man Hewitt, of Coventry ; the other, Elizabeth, to the
Rev. John Gaunt, of Birmingham. Mr. Dyer had some
brothers, all of whom were dead in 1756, except one,
who was a clergyman — yeoman of his Majesty's almon-
ry — lived at Marylebone, and had then, a numerous

116 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

family. Mr. Dyer's character as a writer has been fixed
by three poems : " Grongar Hill," " The Ruins of
Rome," and " The Fleece," in which a poetical imagi-
nation perfectly original, a natural simplicity con-
nected with the true sublime and often productive of
it, the warmest sentiments of benevolence and virtue,
have been universally observed and admired. These
pieces were published separately in his lifetime, but,
after his death, collected in one volume, 8vo, 1761,
with a short account of himself prefixed.

The poet, "Wordsworth, has written so sweet a tribute
" To the Poet, John Dyer," that I cannot resist quoting
it:

" Bard of the Fleece, whose skilful genius made
That work a living landscape, fair and bright;
Nor hallow'd less with musical delight.
Than those soft scenes through which thy childhood stray'd,
Those southern tracts of Cambria, deep embay'd,
By green hills fenced, by ocean's murmur lull'd.
Though hasty Fame hath many a chaplet cull'd
For worthless brows, while, in the pensive shade
Of cold neglect, she leaves thy head ungraced.
Yet pure and powerful minds, hearts meek and still —
A grateful few — shall love thy modest lay
Long as the shepherd's bleating flock shall stray
O'er naked Snowdon's wide, aerial waste ;
Long as the thrush shall pipe on Grongar Hill."

A modern critic compares the poet, John G. "Whit-
tier, to John Dyer, and says : " Unpretentious, yet an
enthusiastic lover of nature in her several picturesque
forms, nothing delights Whittier so much as to dwell

SOME KECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 117

on liis favorite tlicme ; and of all the poets since Dyer's
time (the immortal author of ' Grongar Hill '), Whittier
most reminds us of that exquisite delineator of natural
scenery, who, while breaking out so enthusiastically, in
the oft quoted lines, commencing

" ' Ever charming, ever new,

When will the landscape tire the view?'

makes us feel that John G. Whittier is Dyer's legiti-
mate successor in song."

Samuel Dyer, a man of great learning, and the friend
and associate of the literati of the last age, was born
about 1725, and educated at Northampton, under Dr.
Doddridge, and for some time, had the additional ben-
efit of being instructed by the learned Dr. John "Ward,
professor of rhetoric, in Gresham College. lie after-
wards studied under Professor Hutcheson at Glasgow,
and, to complete his education, his father, an eminent
jeweller in London, sent him, by the advice of Dr.
Chandler, to Leyden, where he remained tw^o years.
He became an excellent classical scholar, a great math-
ematician and natural philosopher ; was well versed in
the Hebrew, and a master of the Latin, Italian and
French languages. Added to these endowments he
was of a temper so mild, and in his conversation, so
modest and unassuming, that he gained the attention
and affection of all around him. In all questions of
science. Dr. Johnson looked up to him ; and, in his life

118 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

of Dr. "Watts, (where he calls him the " late learned
Mr. Dyer",) has cited an observation of his, that Watts
had confounded the idea of space, with that of envpty
space, and did not consider that, though space might
be without matter, yet matter, being extended, could
not be without space. Mr. Dyer appears to have been
intended, by his early friends, for the ministry among
the Dissenters, but discovered an averseness to the pas-
toral office, which Sir John Hawkins insinuates to have
proceeded from an unfavorable change in his religious
sentiments. Various literary schemes appear to have
been suggested to him, none of which he undertook,
except in 1758, the revisal of the English edition of
Plutarch's Lives. In this he translated anew only the
lives of Demetrius and Pericles. In 1759 he became
a commissary in the army of Germany, and continued
in that station to the end of the seven years' war, after
which he returned to England, and, on the formation
of the Literary Club (composed of Dr. Johnson and his
friends) in 1764, he was the first member elected into
that society, with whom he continued to associate and
by whom he was highly esteemed to the time of his
death, in September, 1772. From an excellent portrait
of this gentleman, by Sir Joshua Keynolds, a mezzo-
tin to print was scraped by his pupil Marchi, of which a
copy was imposed upon the public as the portrait of
John Dyer, the poet. Sir John Hawkins, in his Life
of Johnson, has given a very unfavorable sketch of Mr.
Dyer's character, representing him as an infidel and a
sensualist. These charges, Mr. Malone, in a long note

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 119

in his Life of Drj'deii, has minutely examined with a
view to refute them, but in our opinion is more to be
praised for tlie intention, than the execution of this
desirable purpose. Sir John Hawkins seems to have
drawn his facts from personal knowledge of Mr. Dyer.
Mr. Malone does not pretend to this, and while lie ex-
presses a just indignation at Sir John's charging Mr.
Dver with infidelity, (supposing the charge to he false),
he tells us that he himself had no means of knowing
what Mr. Dver's relisfious sentiments were. There is
nothing conclusive, therefore, to be expected from one
who is led, from whatever motive, to deny assertions
without being able to prove that they are untrue. Mr.
Malone is the first, if we mistake not, who himself as-
serted what he has not in the least attempted to prove,
viz., that Dver was the author of Junius's letters. This
indeed he qualifies among his errata, by saying that
Dyer was not the sole author, but the principal author.
But even here he offers no kind of proof, nor, since
the publication of the late edition of those celebrated
letters, will it probably he thought that he had any
to offer more worthy of attention than the conjec-
tures which have ascribed these letters to a Bovd or a
Wilmot.

George Dyer, an English author, born in a suburb
of London, March 15, 1755, died in London, March 2,
ISAl. He was educated at Christ's Hospital, where he
was an associate of Charles Lamb, and at Emmanuel

120 SOME EECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

College, Cambridge, where he received the degree of
bachelor in 1788. He was successively a teacher, tutor
and a Baptist minister, residing most of the time either at
Cambridge or Oxford, till, in 1792, he removed to Lon-
don, where he was engaged as Parliamentary reporter,
teacher and writer. In 1830 his eyesight failed him,
and he at length became totally blind. He was a poet
and frequent contributor to reviews, but is better known
as a scholar and antiquary. He wrote " Complaints of
the Poor" — a work on prison discipline, from personal
examinations of the prisons in and about the metropo-
lis. He edited two plays of Euripides and the Greek
Testament ; Valpy's Edition of the Classics, in 141
volumes ; the '* Poet's Fate," a poetical dialogue, in-
scribed to the Society for the Establishment of a Lit-
erary Fund ; History of the University of Cambridge,
and notices of its founders and eminent men, 1814.

In the Reminiscences of Henry Crabb Robinson,
1799, we find the following : '' I became acquainted
about this time with George Dyer. He was one of the
best creatures morally tliat ever breathed. He was the
son of a watchman in Wapping, and was put to a char-
ity school by some pious Dissenting ladies. He after-
wards went to Christ's Hospital, and from there was
sent to Cambridge. He was a scholar, but to the end
of his days (and he lived to be 85) was a bookseller's
drudge. He led a life of literary labor in poverty. He
made indexes, corrected the press, and occasionally gave
lessons in Latin and Greek. When an undero-raduate
at Cambridge he became a hearer of Robert Robinson,

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 121

and, consequently, a Unitarian. This closed the Church
against him and he never liad a fellowship. He be-
came intimate with the Xashes, Fordhams, and Rutt,
and was patronized by Wakefield and Mrs. Barbauld.
He wrote one good book, the ' Life of Robert Robin-
sou,' which I have heard Wordsworth mention as one
of the best w^orks of biography, in the language. Dyer
also put his name to several volumes of poetry ; but on
his poems my friend Reid made an epigram, that I fear
was thought just :

" ' The world all say, my gentle Dyer,
Thy odes do very much want fire.
Repair the fault, mj' gentle Dyer,
And throw thy odes into the tire! '

" Dyer had the kindest heart, and simplest manners
imaginable. It was literally the case with him that he
would give away his last guinea. He was not sensible
of any impropriety in wearing a dirty shirt or a ragged
coat ; and numerous are the tales told in illustration of
his neglect of little every-day matters of comfort. He
has asked a friend to breakfast with him, and given
him coarse black tea, stale bread, salt butter, sonr milk,
and has had to run out to buy sugar. Yet, every one
loved Dyer. One day Mrs. Barbauld said to me, ' Have
you heard whom Lord Stanhope has made executor?'
' No ! Your brother ? ' ' No, there would have been
nothing in that. The very worst imaginable.' 'Oil!
then it is Bonaparte.' 'No — guess again.' 'George
Dyer ? ' ' You are right. Lord Stanhope was clearly

133 SOME RECOEDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

insane ! ' Dyer was one of six executors. Charles
James Fox was another. The executors were also re-
siduary legatees. Dyer was one of the first to declare
that he rejected the legacy, and renounced the execu-
torship. But the heir insisted on granting liiin a small
annuity ; his friends having before settled another on
him, he was comparatively wealtliy in his old age. Not
many years before his death, he married his laundress,
by the advice of his friends — a very worthy woman.
He said to me, once, ' Mrs. Dyer is a woman of excel-
lent natural sense, but she is not literary.' Dyer was
blind, for a few years before his death. I used occa-
sionally to go on a Sunday morning to read to him. At
other times, a poor man used to render him that service
for sixpence an hour. After he came to London, Dyer
lived always in some very humble cliambers in Clif-
ford's Inn, Fleet street."

Thomas Noon Talfourd had a great regard for
George Dyer and refers to his " simplicity of nature,
not only unspotted by the world, but almost abstracted
from it," and speaks of him as " breathing out, at the
age of 85, the most blameless of lives, which began in
a struggle, to end in a learned dream."

In Rose's Biographical Dictionary, I find an account
of William Dyer, a Non-conformist ejected from his
living of Cholesbury, in Buckinghamshire, in 1662.
He turned Quaker in the latter part of his life, and

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 123

died in 1696, aged 60, and was l)uried in Southwark.
He wrote some sermons and theological tracts, much
in the style of Bunyan. They were reprinted in 1671.

Thomas Henry Dyer, historian, was born May 1,
1804, in the parish of St. Dunstan in the East, in the
city of London, and educated privately. He was en-
gaged, during the earlier part of his life in a "West
India house, and after the ruin of Jamaica, in conse-
quence of negro emancipation, adopted the profession
of literature. Mr. Dyer travelled extensively on this
Continent, and particularly studied the topography and
antiquities of Rome, Athens, and Pompeii. He was
presented in 1865 with the honorary degree of Doctor
of Laws, by the University of St. Andrews, He pub-
lished in 1850 a Life of Calvin, which was pirated in
America; in 1861, a "History of Modern Europe," 4
vols.; in 1865, a "History of the City of Rome;" in
1867 an enlarged edition of "Pompeii;" in 1868, a
" History of the Kings of Rome," and in 1873, "An-
cient Athens ; " besides many articles in the Classical
Museum, in Dr. Smith's Dictionaries of Biography,
and Geography, etc.

" From Mr. Frederick Nathaniel Dyer, of Mac-
clesfield, England, I have received an interesting ac-
count of the family. Mr. Dyer is a lineal descend-

124 SOME EECORt)S OF THE DYER FAMILY.

ant of William and Mary Dyre, and has always resided
in England. His father was born in Rhode Island.
Mr. r. N. Dyer is a great-great-nephew of Sir "William
Jones, the distinguished oriental scholar, and is a man
of culture, and literary tastes. He has had many op-
portunities of investigating the family history, and his
information is undoubtedly accurate. He says, ' The
Dyres were settled in Glastonbury, Somersetshire, be-
fore the Conquest. After the defeat of the Saxons at
Senlac, near Hastings, Siward Dyre and his two sons,
Si ward Beam and Wight, retired to Glastonbury,
from whence they issued to make war on the Normans
as occasion served, until, leaving their wives and chil-
dren in charge of the monks, they joined Hereward
in the famous Camp of Refuge. Siward Dyre (about
1036) was Eai-1 of Northumbria, (eai'l being then an
official title, and meaning military governor), and he is
the Siward of Shakspeare's "Macbeth." He was descend-
ed from Alfred the Great, and I can prove, by legal
proof, our descent from him and am able to bring such
evidence to bear on the matter as will carry conviction
to any sane mind.' Mr, Dyer also adds that there is
no doubt of the descent of William and Mary Dyre,
from Sir Richard Dyre, of Wincanton, Somerset-
shire, and gives the following account of the direct an-
cestors of the family : ' Sir Edward Dyre was proba-
bly a younger son, of no fortune. He was a poet and
soldier. Queen Elizabeth appointed him Chancellor
of the Garter. On her death, he retired from court,
and disappeared from history, as no record of his death

SOilE RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 125

is known. His disappearance probably arose from
some act repulsive to James the First. As Chancellor
of the Garter, his loss would have been traced and
noted. The probability is, that Huntingdonshire and
Lincolnshire, being the stronghold of Puritanism, his
espousal of these principles ignored him at court and
by contemporaries. He may have been a j^roselyte
and follower of Cromwell, and if so, probably went to
Leyden, while his sons and daughters went to ISTew
England.' ' The last of the baronets of Great Staugh-
ton (descended from Sir Richard Dyre) died in 1776,
and by a curious coincidence the representation of the
baronetcy passed into the American branch of our
race, in the year of the Declaration of Independence.
The baronetcy has not been claimed, and it remains to
be seen whether it ever will be.' "

From a " History of the Anglo-Saxons," by Sharon
Turner, F.A.S., I find the following account of
Siward Dyre, or Digre^ as it was spelled in Anglo-
Saxon times. " In 1054 while Macduff, the Tliane
of Fife, was exciting a formidable revolt in Scot-
land, Siward, by some called the Giant, from his
large size, and whose sister had been Duncan's queen,
conducted his Northumbrians against Macbeth. A
furious conflict followed, in which thousands of
both armies perished ; but Siward, though he lost
his son and nephew, defeated the usurper. He re-
turned with great plunder, having made Malcolm

126 SOME RECORDS OF THE DTER FAMILY.

king. The glory of a warrior was the felicity most
precious to Siward. On his return to York, he felt
that an internal disease was consuming his vitality, and
he sighed for the funereal trophies of a field of battle.
' I feel disgraced that I should have survived so many
combats, to perish now like a cow. Clothe me in my
mail, fasten on my sword and give me my shield, and
my battle-axe, that I may expire like a soldier ! ' "

On Siward's death in 1055, Tostig, the brother of
Harold, was appointed Earl of Northumbria.

In " Camden's Remaines" it is stated that " when
Siward, the martial Earl of Northumberland, under-
stood that his son, whom he had sent against the
Scotchmen, was slain, he demanded whether his wounds
were in the fore part, or hinder part, of his body.
When it was answered, ' In the fore part,' he replied,
' I am right glad ; neither wish I any other death to
me or mine.' "

Shakspeare has thus described this scene in Mac-
beth, act 5th, scene 7th, when the nobleman, Rosse,
announced the death of young Siward to his father :

' ' Rosse. Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier's debt.
He only lived but till be was a man;
The which no sooner had his prowess confirmed
In the unshrinking station where he fought,
But like a man he died.

Siward. Then he is dead?

Rosse. Aye, and brouglit off the field; your cause of sorrow
Must not be measured by his worth, for then
It hath no end.

Siward. Had he his hurts before?

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 127

Eosse. Aye, on the front.

Siward. Why, then, God's soldier be he!

Had I as many sons as I have hairs,
I would not wish them to a fairer death.
And so his knell is knoUed.

Malcolm. He's worth more sorrow,

And that I'll spend for him.

Siward. He's worth no more;

They say, he parted well, and paid his score;
And so, God be with him!"

The first record of the family name which we find
in Great Britain, is that of Dier or Diheuvyr, a saint
who flourished in the sixth century, and founded the
church of Bodffari, in Flintshire, North Wales. In the
legend of St. "Winifred, he is called Deiferus. In 1503
Jeffrey Dier was mayor of Carmarthen ; and in 1514,
Gwalter Dier filled the same ofiice. This proves that
the name was known in Wales before John Dyer, the
poet, had so identified it with the Yale of Towy,
through his much admired poem on Grongar Hill.

Henry II. established colonies of Flemish dyers
in South Wales (Little England beyond Wales)
as well as near Winchester and London, to introduce
their trade into England. Many families descending
from these men took their names from their trade,
whence the multitude of Dyers who have no connec-
tion with the Dyres of Somersetshire.

In a manuscript book written by the mother of the

128 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.

late Judge Bradford, of Wilmington, Delaware, is the
following interesting account of some relics of Mary
Dyre. Mrs. Bradford, was a descendant of William,
the second son of William and Mary Dyre, who went
to Delaware about the time of his mother's death,
and remained there. Mrs. Bradford says : " Several
reliques of Mary Dyre have been, from generation to
generation, preserved by my family with pious care.
Among them a dress, worked in manj^ colored silks,
with gold and silver thread, by her own hands, and
worn by her at the court of England. It has been
cut up into very small pieces, and distributed to differ-
ent friends of the society, to which she belonged. A
few remnants only of this valued garment, remain in
my possession. The groundwork of this dress, was rich
white satin — butterflies, flowers, grasshoppers, with
other insects, were the chosen figures. The work must
have been one of time, requiring much patience and
perseverance. A piece of this work is now in the
Philadelphia Museum. A still more valuable relique
of this venerated ancestor is her bodkin, of pure gold,
bearing her initials upon it — M. D. In consequence
of filing, its size has diminished. These precious par-
ticles were, from time to time, presented to friends,
who had them mingled with othei' gold for sleeve-
buttons."

I have consulted many books of heraldry, and the
first grant of arms to any person bearing the name of
Dyer, which I have been able to find, was in 1575,

SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 129

nndoiibtedly, granted to Sir James Dyer. On the
shield are three goats. The crest is a goat's head hold-
ing a rose in the month. Since Sir James Dyer's day,
the rose has, in many instances, been discarded from
the crest, and a goat's head rising out of a ducal coro-
net, is used by various members of the family. There
are many families in England, at the present day,
named Dyer, to whom arms have been granted. In
most cases, the goat is an emblem, showing that there
is more or less consanguinity between the families.

William Andrew Dyer, of London, a great-great-great-
ffreat-ofrandson of Oliver Cromwell, has for his crest
a demi-lion rampant, and the motto " Chi sera, sera."

Sir Thomas Swinnerton Dyer has the goat's head in
a ducal coronet and, over the crest, the motto in Welsh,
" O'r Hen Fonedd," meaning " Of an ancient, honor-
able race."

After a very careful examination at the Heralds'
Collesre in London, it has been ascertained and eci'-
tifed there, that the coat of arms of William Dyre
is the one depicted on the last page. The Saracen's
head of the crest undoubtedly denotes that some ances-
tors, in olden times, have taken part in the Crusades,
while the three goats of the shield, show that there is

130

SOME EEC0ED3 OF THE DYER FAMILY.

a link between William Dyer, and tlie family of Sir
James Dyer, the distinguished jurist, son of Richard
Dyer, lord of the manor of Wincanton, Somersetshire,
England.

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